The Greatest of Hunts
by DreamShadow
Summary: Knuckles has been too distracted to guard the Master Emerald, and the white bat that distracts him is about to reenter his life. (Knux Rouge) - Chapter 5 Now Up
1. Let The Hunt Begin

The Greatest of Hunts  
  
By DreamShadow  
  
Chapter One: Let The Hunt Begin  
  
(Author's Notes: I didn't mean to take so much time off. Anyway, as promised a long time ago, this is my Rouge and Knuckles fic, meaning they'll be primary instead of sharing a spotlight with Sonic and Amy. This one might be longer than my last, as well, I wanted this one to be more in-depth. So with that, read, review, and enjoy!)  
  
Knuckles looked around, finding himself in an all-too familiar situation. He was back at the space station just outside the meteor herd, standing over a pit of molten rock on an iron crossbeam. He was panting, sweating, from the heat of the lava and of battle. The thief in front of him was in the same state, Rouge was wearing out, as well. But this happened a long time ago, why was he reliving it?  
  
"Stop fooling around, and give me back MY emeralds!" The two screamed at each other in unison. Knuckles wasn't sure why he said it just like he did before, he didn't want to. It was like he didn't have control of his own body, just watching from it's eyes.  
  
"What are you babbling about?" Rouge taunted. "You call yourself a hunter? Attacking a lady, shame on you!" Knuckles remembered the first time that line crossed his ears, it got under his skin bad. It just seemed out of place now, though.  
  
"What kind of lady steals gems, anyway?" He retorted, again unable to say different. None of this was right, Rouge was his friend now and he was insulting her all over again.  
  
"Those belong to me!" Rouge said, just like before, and again stepped forward to take the rest of the emerald shards, just like before. Knuckles struggled now, trying to tell her to stop, trying to step forward to intercept her, but neither his voice or his actions ever came. He watched as the tall heel of Rouge's boot slipped, throwing off her footing as it did before, sending her over the edge and down toward the magma. Knuckles felt his heart stop suddenly, and out of instinct ran toward her, despite being here before it didn't change how scared he was in that moment. Something wasn't right this time, though. He came closer to Rouge, but never made the jump. He tried with everything he could to make the jump, to catch her hand as she fell as he did before, but his body refused to move, and his eyes refused to look away from Rouge, now falling without hope of recovering toward the lava.  
  
**********  
  
A sudden crash of thunder startled Knuckles out of his sleep, accompanied by a tightness in his chest like it has just been hit by a hammer. He was in a cold sweat, panting, eyes now wide as he sat up. Just a dream, but it has been haunting him for weeks now, it must have been the sixth time he's had it in the last two weeks. Every time it was the same, he would see the last fight he had with Rouge, the last standoff, and her falling. But every time the only part that changed was that he never saved her and every time before she hit the lava he woke up. It wouldn't have bothered him except for one factor, how scared he was. Growing up as the sole guardian of such an important relic as the Master Emerald, he was prone to nightmares, but he was used to them, they never scared him, but for some reason this never failed to scare him and it only got worse.  
  
Knuckles stood, knowing he wouldn't be getting back to sleep, and looked around. There was a slight trickle from some dark storm clouds overhead in the early morning sky but they were passing, the clap of thunder must have been the last one the storm had in it. He sighed, just now getting back his breath, and turned toward the shrine sitting in the middle of his island where the Master Emerald sat. The clouds had given way enough for a sunbeam to come into the emerald, making it flash with colors and only adding to it's glow.  
  
"Hard to believe something that can show that much beauty can make my life such a pain sometimes." Knuckles said to himself. He thought about the line a moment before chuckling slightly. "Well, at least it's not the only one guilty of that." He was thinking back to the dream and Rouge again. What was it about that bat that wouldn't leave him alone? It was getting to be a distraction, he couldn't guard the Master Emerald if he couldn't focus on it. It was times like this he wished there were other ways, but nothing would work. He could give the job to the Chaotix but that would be giving the curse of one to four. He could just leave it shattered and let the island drop but that would be risking someone getting all the fragments, not to mention if it was needed to stop the Chaos Emeralds. The last alternative he had been considering for quite some time, but it would just recreate a previous problem. It looked like his only way, though. Knuckles turned away from the Emerald, stepping out to the edge of the floating island and looking over at the mainland and ocean below.  
  
"Guess it's all I can do." Knuckles said, thinking out loud. "Maybe if I get one thing off my mind I can focus on getting Rouge out of my head." With that the echidna turned and walked back to the emerald to begin preparations that would hopefully end his own torments.  
  
**********  
  
Far from the view of the Floating Island that Knuckles called home was where his race called home, the ruins of the ancient echidna race in the middle of the jungle, otherwise known as the mystic ruins. Here a familiar white bat clad in black and pink was doing what she did best, hunting down stray jewels and gems. Although Rouge was quite rich in jewels after her payoff from the Ultimate Lifeform investigation, this was still what she did best and it kept her mind off of things. As she walked out of the ruins, Rouge wore an annoyed look on her face, carrying a sack in her left hand that swung as she walked, a quiet jingle of something juggling around inside. Rouge walked a few feet from the temple's entrance before tossing the pouch out of frustration into one of the columns outside. It hit with a loud jingle and fell to the ground below, with numerous trinkets spilling out. Beaded pendants, a few gold wristbands and necklaces, a couple metal rings, but not a gemstone among the pile.  
  
"The whole race must have taken a vow of poverty..." Rouge spat in disappointment. "Guardians of the most powerful gems in existence and they can't keep a few normal ones around." Rouge had been exploring every corner of the ruins for the past week on and off, with the small sack of artifacts the only thing to come of the effort. "Mystic Ruins, no kidding. My week of work ruined in an instant just like magic." She sighed as her frustration was vented, stepping back over to the bag to reclaim the trinkets, maybe a museum would trade them for a good-sized ruby. As she bent down to sweep the spilled items back into the bag she heard a familiar ring from behind her. Rouge stood up again and reached to a pocket behind her back, withdrawing a small black cellular phone, the same kind used by the president's Secret Service. Only one person called her on that phone. She opened it up and placed it to her ear.  
  
"This is Rouge." She said into the receiver. It was all she was supposed to say, if she said anything else they were to assume she was in some kind of trouble.  
  
"Rouge, my dear, I trust you know who this is." A male voice on the other end said. Of course she knew, it was the President again, same one she kept in touch with during the events on the ARK. "Myself and my departments just finished going over your report from the Ultimate Lifeform investigation." That news surprised Rouge, but not in a good way. Those events were a month and a half old, report filed the day after she stepped off the ARK.  
  
"Good, and it only took six weeks." Rouge said sarcastically. "If you're calling about anything I might have left out I can assure you, everything is there." Rouge usually wanted to get jobs for the government done and her reports never left a detail out just so she wouldn't have to deal with it again.  
  
"Actually it's about something else you encountered during the events." He continued. "Something my defense program took interest in." Rouge was afraid it was about that. Among all the details were the Chaos Emeralds she collected and saw the power of first hand. It was the only detail she regretted including in her reports.  
  
"I know what you're going to ask and the answer's no." She quickly answered. "The Chaos Emeralds are too hard to get, I nearly died just getting three of them. I'm not in that business anymore." She knew what was to come next, an offer of jewels he thought she couldn't refuse.  
  
"You jump to conclusions, my dear." He said, somewhat surprising Rouge. "The public is too aware of the Chaos Emeralds after the events of Station Square. To attempt to acquire those would draw far too much attention. I refer to the Master Emerald." Rouge was suddenly confused and upset, she didn't see why he would want the gem that just canceled out the Chaos Emeralds. Besides, the path to taking that emerald went through Knuckles, she wasn't going to do that again.  
  
"That's out of the question." She replied with force, now pacing around as she talked into the phone. "Besides, it only cancels out the Chaos Emerald's powers, you'd have no use for it." She wanted him to drop this idea badly, she was just getting on good terms with Knuckles, this would wreck that in an instant.  
  
"My defense department thinks otherwise." He responded. "They believe that, instead of the Master Emerald existing to neutralize the Chaos Emeralds, that it in fact has so much more power that it cancels out that of the Chaos Emeralds. It also makes for an easier task, it's guarded by the one lone echidna and it's existence unknown to the public." It was getting obvious she wasn't going to talk him out of the idea, but it wouldn't change her final answer.  
  
"The answer is still no." Rouge said firmly. "I don't care what the offer is, this is not a mission I'm taking." Knuckles was so reclusive, so private, it was a miracle she even gained any trust with him, she didn't want to lose this.  
  
"Again you jump ahead." He answered, his tone becoming more serious. "We are not asking or offering, this is an order. Remember you stole the Emeralds from the Security Hall and assisted in it's destruction. We may not overlook that crime much longer if you refuse. Accept now, though, and we may feel generous enough to... double the usual pay?" Now it was blackmail, though Rouge wasn't surprised. The jewels would be tempting for any other job, but this would ruin her trust with Knuckles, a much rarer find. Maybe there was a way out down the road, but for now, she wasn't left with much choice.  
  
"...Fine, I'll do it." She said with regret. Rouge quickly closed the phone and replaced it, not wanting to hear anything else. Her pouch of echidna relics was long forgotten about now, there were too many thoughts flooding her mind at once to be concerned with it. Most importantly was how she was going to live with herself after this.  
  
**********  
  
It was around noon now and Knuckles was still preparing, it has been some time since he last attempted this and he had forgotten how much effort it took to get started. He looked at the Master Emerald before him, it's center pulsing with a dim glow, almost like it was a beating heart. He had been focusing on it for hours, trying to get the right amount of energy out of it. It was so chaotic getting it right was near impossible.  
  
His concentration was broken as a noise came from the edge of the island. Knuckles looked over to the front of the island where a strong updraft was located. Generally only he used it to get back onto the island after gliding down to the mainland, very rarely Tails would use it to haul Sonic up to visit, but his tails made a different sound in the wind, this was new. Knuckles moved to stand in front of the emerald, clenching both fists in preparation of some kind of attack or ambush from Eggman. A figure rose up, but hardly one he expected. A white bat with black wings dressed in black and pink. Knuckles dropped his fists, surprised to say the least as Rouge came down from the updraft, landing softly on the edge of the floating island. She looked up, eyelids half down as she smiled at Knuckles.  
  
"Not the most friendly front door I've ever gone through." She said, stepping toward the red echidna. "At least put a welcome mat down or something." The look of surprise quickly faded as Knuckles regained his familiar composure.  
  
"Rouge, what are you doing up here?" Knuckles asked, a bit of confusion obvious in his voice. Rouge stopped her walk and turned to her side, folding her arms and closing her eyes, but still with a sly smile.  
  
"Well that's some hello." She said in teasing fashion. "No hi, no asking how I've been, it has been a month since we were last in touch." He was well aware of that, just a quick run-in when he went to the mainland for lunch one day, it was probably what started the nightmares he had been having.  
  
"Fine, sorry." Knuckle said in a flat tone. "It's not that I mind the visit but you don't strike me as the kind to 'just be gliding by'." Rouge opened her eyes halfway again, turning her head to look at Knuckles.  
  
"Such lack of faith, can't you soften up for once?" She said, drawing an annoyed frown from Knuckles. "I came up to visit because I wanted to, is it so hard to believe?" Of course it was a lie, given what she was ordered to do she wanted to be any place but here. But given how much she would be paid, not to mention keeping her own freedom, she had to do this. Knuckles sighed in defeat, he was getting the idea he wouldn't be able to talk her off the island.  
  
"Well okay but your visit is going to be short, I'm in the middle of something." He said, turning back to the Master Emerald. Rouge turned to him completely, walking closer to the massive Emerald she was supposed to claim. Just the size was daunting, how she was supposed to take it to begin with without Knuckles noticing was confusing.  
  
"So what on this tiny flying rock could you be busy with?" She said, still looking on at the Emerald. Knuckles raised both gloved hands, placing them on the top of the emerald. Rouge watched on as the emerald again picked up it's beating glow, growing slightly at a slow pace. A few minutes of silence passed and eventually Knuckles brought his hands off the gemstone, stepping back. Rouge continued to watch as the Master Emerald's inner glow absorbed into the remainder of the gem, making it give off a dim green light. It rotated on it's tip slightly, making a slow turn before stopping suddenly, flashing white before returning to it's normal appearance. Rouge turned to ask Knuckles what she just watched when she noticed he was now down on one knee, driving one of his fists into the ground, planting his barbs into the ground.  
  
"You should hold on to something." He said. Before Rouge could find out what he meant the island suddenly jerked hard, knocking Rouge down onto her back. Knuckles chuckled slightly, pulling his fist up and standing again. Rouge, on the other hand, was slower to stand, now taking her turn to look annoyed.  
  
"That was not funny!" She hissed. "You should have warned me the stupid island of yours could fly!" Indeed, the jerk came from a sudden start in movement and the mainland they previously had a view of was now slowly vanishing into the distance.  
  
"It floats, doesn't it?" Knuckles said. "Does it really surprise you it could move in directions other than up?" Rouge brushed herself off, still somewhat annoyed. She looked over in the direction they were flying, out farther into the ocean, but wherever Knuckles made the island fly toward wasn't in view and the island wasn't going that fast so it was probably some time before they would even see it.  
  
"I doubt this flight is just for fun, so what's the point of moving this rock?" She asked, genuinely curious now. Knuckles just now turned to look at her, as if he just realized who she was now that he wasn't so focused on the Master Emerald. It was the person that was distracting his duties and even his sleep constantly for the last month and having her this close didn't make any of it more clear.  
  
"If you have to know, I'm taking it back to where I got it." Knuckles answered. "This 'rock' is just part of the real Floating Island. The first time Eggman tried to take the Master Emerald it was hidden deep in that island, but it's too large to watch it at all times. It's not as safe, but it grants me some actual freedom." Rouge caught an odd tone in Knuckles's voice as he spoke that last part, almost like anger.  
  
"Sounds like you're getting sick of the job." She said seriously, her normal act now dropped. Knuckles shook his head in response, wanting to get that idea out of her head.  
  
"You've got it all wrong." He said bluntly. "It's not that I'm sick of it, I've just been... distracted lately." Knuckles almost spoke too quickly and mentally scolded himself for nearly slipping. "It's just until I get everything straightened out, I'll come back for it then. It's just temporary." Rouge was beginning to notice a habit Knuckles had when he spoke, talking about one thing he ends up mentioning something else that needed explaining. She decided not to ask about whatever the distraction was, at this rate they would go on forever. Though it at least gave her an idea...  
  
"Well if this real Floating Island is really so big, it must be a long walk to haul this big jewel through." Rouge said, now stepping closer to the Master Emerald, making Knuckles a little edgy as she did. "If you wouldn't mind some company, I'd like to see this place." For how much she valued it, Rouge was disgusted her only option was to use Knuckles's trust to get the emerald. If he was just going to leave it there, she could take it easily without him knowing it was her, at least some relationship with him would be safe. As it was Rouge was even hoping Knuckles would pull his usual loner routine and say no just so she wouldn't have to get it this way.  
  
"This is my job, Rouge, I have to do it on my own." Knuckles said, his usual attitude taking over. It only lasted a moment before he started thinking, the trip would take a few days on foot, maybe time enough to figure out why Rouge wouldn't leave his head. What better chance did he have? Besides, he could still leave the emerald and actually have some time to himself for a change. "...but if you want to tag along it's your decision to make, I won't stop you." He continued. The answer surprised Rouge, despite the idea she expected Knuckles to turn her down without even hesitating.  
  
"Well at least you'll have company now, right?" She added. The comment was half-hearted, though, her mind was too lost on what she still had to do, she had an easier way out now but it was still just as hard on her.  
  
"Yeah, assuming you last, the place does get fairly rough." Knuckles taunted. He smirked slightly, the half-insult wasn't serious, just back to the usual word trading he did with Rouge.  
  
"Hey, don't forget who you're talking to, I'm still more of a hunter than you'll ever be!" She retorted, also adding a kidding tone to the taunt. One of the things she liked about Knuckles was that he could keep even with her in so much, not just hunting and fighting, but friendly trash talk, as well. At least now that it was friendly, that is.  
  
"Alright then, we'll see about that here." He retorted with a smirk. Knuckles turned and stepped back to the emerald, looking out in the direction it was flying in. Their pace was by no means quick, such a large rock could only fly so fast even with the Master Emerald as an engine.  
  
Hours passed as the island flew with little change. Same speed, same clouds going by overhead, same land and water going by below. Rouge had made herself comfortable near the island's edge, laying on the short grass and keeping away from Knuckles as she considered her position. She was here, she had a plan, over and over she tried telling herself to just get it over with, when it was done she would probably never see Knuckles again to know if he blamed her or not. So why didn't knowing that make her feel better...  
  
"Rouge, you awake over there?" She heard from across the small island. Rouge sat up from her spot, pushing up to her feet to look at Knuckles on the other side. "We're about to make landfall, I didn't want the shock to catch you off guard again." Rouge scowled somewhat at the comment, not that she expected Knuckles to drop it so easily. The white bat stepped across the island, passed the Master Emerald, still glowing in the center, over to where Knuckles stood, looking out into the distance. They were close to another floating island, but much larger than the one they were standing on. From here Rouge could make out the large mountains, vast jungles, flowing rivers and waterfalls, even the remains of several small ruins. The sight was breathtaking and Rouge suddenly realized why it was so hard to guard the emerald on such an island. As the large island loomed closer, she suddenly wondered if she was going to pull this off or if she was in over her head...  
  
End Chapter 1  
  
Next: Chapter 2 - New Experiences  
  
History Lesson: You'll note I haven't called either island Angel Island yet, and there's a reason. Sonic Team messed up when naming the island Knuckles lived on in Sonic Adventure 1 and 2. Angel Island was the first stage in Sonic 3, a normal, non-floating island. The Floating Island was where Sonic & Knuckles took place, which is where Knux and Rouge are now in this story. 


	2. New Experiences

The Greatest of Hunts  
  
By DreamShadow  
  
Chapter Two: New Experiences  
  
Rouge made her way to what could be called the front of the island, standing a few feet from Knuckles's side, watching the massive floating island loom closer as they approached. The scenery she saw before was closing in as they came to the edge of what looked like a massive forest starting on one side of the island. They were still going straight and at their height were now just barely clearing the trees as they passed over the large island. Both treasure hunters could feel their momentum slowing as they approached a thinner section of the forest where a large pit was located in the ground. The island continued to slow until it was directly over the pit, then stopped before descending down slowly. A moment passed before the small island settled into the pit with a shudder, fitting the hole exactly. Rouge glanced around at the now expanded island, noticing many fragments of what may at one time been the other parts of the broken ruins Knuckles had the Master Emerald in, though they had many years of moss covering them now.  
  
"So this is where you pulled your little island up from..." She said, still glancing around. Rouge turned to look at Knuckles, but he had left his place near the front. She turned toward the Master Emerald to see Knuckles beside it, now holding a backpack he must have been storing away in a burrow. He was channeling power from the stone again with his free hand, causing the emerald to faintly glow. Rouge was about to ask what he was doing when the gem started shaking a bit. The glow increased in brightness until it was almost blinding, forcing Rouge to look away. When the light dimmed again and she could turn back, she saw the massive emerald now only slightly bigger than a normal Chaos Emerald and resting in Knuckle's hand.  
  
"Remind me sometime to figure out how you make that toy of yours do so much." Rouge said. Knuckles smirked at the comment as he let the smaller emerald into the backpack. He closed it with a strap hanging off the top, fastening it with a button on the side before throwing it over his shoulder to put it on.  
  
"It's not exactly something you "figure out", that trick alone took about a year to figure out." The echidna replied. Knuckles turned from where the emerald once rested and stepped away, passed Rouge toward the edge of the land that was his island. "We've got a long way to go, last chance to bail out." Rouge wished she could at this point, the trek she didn't mind, it was the ending she didn't look forward to. As much as she wanted to take the offer, she just shook her head no, dismissing the option.  
  
"Drop the loner routine, I told you I'm coming." She spat just to drive the fact into Knuckle's head. The red echidna just shrugged and smirked, eager to see what Rouge would do wrong first. He continued his walk toward the deeper parts of the forest before them, now with Rouge close behind, who was taking in the scenery with some caution for anything that may be dangerous. She wasn't about to let Knuckles be right about this.  
  
As the two walked Rouge started to notice an odd trend in the scenery. The deeper into the forest they went, the more she seemed to be noticing orange mushrooms growing everywhere, some particularly big.  
  
"I hope the fungus around us wasn't what you warned me about." She said, still looking around at the area.  
  
"Hardly." Knuckles replied back. "This is Mushroom Hill, they grow everywhere here. They aren't even poisonous, just tough, really rubbery." Rouge looked down at one smaller one that had grown in the path they were on and idly gave it a kick as they walked. It bounced around like a tall spring for a moment but it didn't budge otherwise.  
  
"I can see that..." She said, continuing to walk. "But it still doesn't explain what you said would be so tough about this place." Knuckles stopped, putting up his hand to indicate for Rouge to do the same.  
  
"If you were here alone you would be." He said, putting his hand back down. He looked back toward the path they were on, which was about to head into the thickest parts of the forest. "When Sonic came here, this is the path he was on. But to keep ahead of him, I took a few easier routes." Knuckles stepped to the left side of the path, toward a large wall of tall grass, easily twice Knuckles's own height. With his large gloves he began clutching the grass a patch at a time, ripping it from the ground. Rouge watches as he went to work, noticing what it was hiding, another mushroom, only as tall as she was and looking much stronger than the one she had kicked over earlier. She also took note of the rock wall behind it, and where it ended about 20 feet up above the mushroom.  
  
"Well, you don't seem like the kind for secret paths." She said with a smirk. Knuckles looked back at her just to return the smirk, then looked back at the mushroom he had revealed.  
  
"Like I said, I had to stay ahead of Sonic." He explained. "There's an easy way up the wall, the mushroom works like a..." He couldn't finish before noticing Rouge at the top of his eyesight, jumping over him and landing on top of the mushroom, her legs bending as she landed to spring up. As Knuckles was about to say, it acted like a spring board, shooting Rouge upward as she kicked off. With a quick front flip she landed gracefully at the edge of the cliff, turning to look back down at Knuckles, who couldn't help but be confused.  
  
"You said the mushrooms were rubbery." She yelled down at him. "Doesn't take a genius to know what happens if you jump on one, Knucklehead." With that she turned and stepped forward, giving Knuckles the room to jump up. The echidna's smirk turned to an irritated frown, he didn't like being shown up on his own island. He followed suit, using the mushroom as a spring to jump up to the cliff edge, though not with the grace of Rouge, who was several feet ahead by now.  
  
"Don't get confident over one lucky guess, that's easy compared to the rest of this place." Rouge giggled a bit at the comment, only irritating him more.  
  
"When will you get it?" Rouge said, continuing down the new path. "I'm all the treasure hunter you are and mo-" She was cut off as she felt something grab her ankle suddenly, making her fall face first to the grass. The white bat pushed herself up a bit to hear Knuckles laughing behind her without much restraint. She stood up, glaring viciously back at him.  
  
"That was not funny!" She shouted in anger. "You should have warned me about this... whatever it is!" Rouge looked down at her ankle, seeing a segmented vine wrapped around it tightly. She took a few steps out, trying to pull it off, only to discover it was as springy as the mushrooms. Rouge stretched it as far as she could on just her feet, then sat on the ground, taking it by both hands and pulling from a sitting position against it, still with no luck, only drawing out Knuckle's laughter. A few minutes passed before Rouge stopped trying to pull, dropping both hands to her sides as she sat, waiting for Knuckles to do something, who has now stopped laughing and was walking her way.  
  
"It's called a tangle vine." He said. "They latch onto anything going passed them in hopes they break the segments apart, it's how they spread seeds. You have to be able to roll into a spinball like me and Sonic to break it." Knuckles stopped beside Rouge, looking down at her with the confident smirk again. Rouge kept her eyes on the vine, not giving Knuckles the satisfaction of her minor defeat here.  
  
"When was the last time you saw a bat roll into a ball, let alone spin while they're in it?" She said sharply, giving her leg a few more tugs to see if the vine had given up, which it hadn't.  
  
"Don't, it won't lose grip for hours." Knuckles said, moving behind Rouge. "We have to do this the hard way. Stand up and give me your arms." Rouge gave one more feudal tug at the vine before admitting defeat, slowly making her way up to her feet so she didn't get pulled back by the vine. Once standing she held out both arms, which Knuckles quickly grabbed onto by the wrists, starting his pull. Rouge pulled up with him, latching to his wrists as well, both now starting to pull the vine farther. Knuckles closed his eyes and gritted his teeth for one hard tug, trying to snap the vine in one motion.  
  
A loud snap filled the air as the segments of the vine gave way. With the loss of pull against them Knuckles fell to his back, Rouge falling on top of him right after. She wasn't heavy enough to take the wind out of him, but he was a little stunned at least. Knuckles opened his eyes, only to stare right into Rouge's, their faces only a couple inches from each other. They blushed slightly as both realized they lost their grip, their arms were now around each other on the ground. Both stayed like that for a moment, too nervous over what the other was making of the situation to move, but the moment went fast as both regained their senses, Rouge quickly pushing up off of Knuckles, who was quickly on his feet and a few steps back from her.  
  
"Can't you ever help me without trying to touch me like some love-sick creep?" Rouge said, quickly covering up whatever embarrassment she was feeling a moment ago.  
  
"Fine, next time you get caught in one of those you can wait for it to let go, that any better?" He replied. Knuckles didn't mean to sound so aggressive in the retort, maybe he was overcompensating for the incident.  
  
"Let's just keep going..." Rouge said with a sigh, already eager to forget all about this. Knuckles just shrugged and turned back around, walking on down the path. Rouge started to follow, then turned back to the vine, still laying on the ground, but she noticed the segments didn't really break apart, the goop holding them together did and was still mostly attached, pulling it back together now as it retreated into the hole it emerged from. She turned and continued to follow Knuckles, looking to the grass now to make sure she didn't catch another one of them.  
  
**********  
  
Their trip continued, all the while Rouge being extra careful not to get overconfident like she did before. She missed the rest of the vines as they walked through the forest, across massive vines, over large hills and ridges, and through more massive mushrooms. It seemed like every time Rouge thought this wasn't the "easy" path Knuckles meant to take, they reached a high area where she could see where Sonic would have passed through, noting many loops in the vine paths and odd elevator systems to reach higher levels, easing her doubts about their path.  
  
Now the two were stopped for a rest on the inside of a hollowed out tree that separated two sections of the forest. Rouge leaned back against one side, looking out the views to her left and right. To her left was where they just came from that surprised her enough, an area where the grass and leaves had turned orange like it was the middle of fall. To her right, on the other hand, was more of a surprise where the grass and leaves had a light tan, almost off-white color like it was almost winter. The sun was already beginning to set, casting a light orange glow on both views. Knuckles was busier deciding what to do about Rouge, it was bad enough he had to watch his own back in this place let alone hers, as well.  
  
"We can stay here for the night if you want, it's better than continuing until nightfall when all the worst comes out." He said. It was really just to give himself and Rouge more time for her to change her mind. Knuckles didn't mind the company but he would rather do the job alone, if they went any farther she wouldn't be able to turn back.  
  
"What is it about this place that makes you so paranoid?" Rouge said, looking over at him from across the hollowed tree. "I told you I was coming with you, stop trying to scare me away." Knuckles was starting to get annoyed, she had been like this the whole trip so far and there was still a long way to go.  
  
"I'm not trying to scare you off, I'm giving you fair warning." He replied. "I don't want to hear you complain about something I didn't warn you about so I warn you constantly." Now Rouge was the irritated one, bad enough he wouldn't stop with the half-warnings, now he was getting an attitude with it. She wished he would just tell her to leave so she could be done with this mess.  
  
"Look, if you want me gone, just say so and I'll leave, simple as that." Rouge spat. Knuckles didn't want to do that, Rouge was still his friend and he still had to have her around to know what his dreams were about, but something that tugged at him in the back of his mind seemed to give him other reasons... It took a minute for it to sink in that he really didn't want her to leave at all, a strange sensation to someone who lived as a loner his entire life, he wasn't sure what to make of it.  
  
Knuckles didn't answer and Rouge didn't continue to push the issue, leaving the two in an awkward quiet with only the sounds of the forest around them to keep it from total silence. The sun was almost down now, it's orange light from the west exit, the one they entered from, dimming and giving way to the dark. It made Rouge redirect her attention to the two views, fall on one side of the passage and winter on the other.  
  
"...Knuckles, tell me about this forest..." Rouge said to break the silence. "In one day we've seen three different seasons in it." Knuckles glanced back over at her, seeing the curiosity in her eyes as she continued looking out at the white fields now losing their orange tint and starting to gain the blue hue of the moonlight.  
  
"...I don't even know myself." He responded after a moment. Rouge raised an eyebrow in response, only confused a bit more than before.  
  
"Come on, you've gotta know." She said. "There had to be someone around when you were a kid that knew this and taught you..." Rouge looked over from the entrance, back to Knuckles, but she was surprised to see his head was lowered a bit, eyes closed like something hit a nerve. "...okay, what did I say wrong?" Knuckles looked back up at her. With his eyes opened Rouge could see a bit of sorrow in them, surprising her to see such an emotion in someone as hardened as Knuckles.  
  
"...my father died before I was born and my mother died when I was still too young to remember her." He explained, a bit of sadness in his voice. "I'm the last of my kind, I was alone all my life..." Knuckles only now realized what he was saying, he didn't like to talk about his past, but he did it to Rouge like it was natural... Somehow it didn't seem bad to let her know.  
  
"...I'm... sorry to hear that..." Rouge managed to say, taken back by his explanation. "It must have been hard to be alone all your life..." Knuckles simply shrugged as if to say he was used to it, which he was. Rouge was about to ask further when Knuckles surprised her again, this time hearing a slight chuckle from him. "Okay, what now? Don't tell me you found that funny." Knuckles looked up at Rouge with a slight smirk, shaking his head.  
  
"Just something I remembered..." He began. "Remember what you said about the emerald shards right after I saved you over the lava pits? You said they stunk like echidnas. I was too happy to get the emeralds back at the time but later when I remembered it, it made me wonder if you had actually met other echidnas to know what they smell like." Rouge had almost forgotten she had said that, it was just a quick reason to give him the emeralds back instead of because she was thankful to him. Just a bad attempt to save face after turning into the damsel in distress.  
  
"Sorry, you're the only one I've known." She admitted. "At least you're better off now than you were the rest of your life, you've got plenty of friends now. Sonic, Tails, that ditsy pink hedgehog girl... and me." Including herself only made her remember why she was there, the Master Emerald. In this short part of the trip she had forgotten all about having an actual mission.  
  
"...thanks, Rouge." He said quietly, just loud enough for her to hear. Knuckles knew his friends but it was nice that someone else was concerned, it was a rare privilege after living alone for so long. He looked back out of the tree's opening to see night was already upon them, the starts now coming out and the moon full in the sky. "...we might as well stay here the rest of the night, get to sleep early so we can head out as soon as the sun's up." Rouge glanced over at the moon just visible from the east opening. Being a bat she preferred the night, but after such a long trip just to get to this point, she wouldn't mind turning in early.  
  
"Fair enough, I could use a few extra hours tonight, anyway." Rouge said. She moved her hands together, taking hold of the tip of one of her long glove's fingers and giving it a tug, freeing one finger. She repeated this for her other fingers, then took hold to pull the glove off her tan-skinned arm and set it aside. Rouge repeated this for her other glove, freeing both her arms for the night. She started to take hold of a boot to remove it when she glanced over at Knuckles, who was already laying down with his back to Rouge, both gloves and shoes still on.  
  
"Don't tell me you intend to sleep in those boxing gloves of yours..." She said. Knuckles sat back up and turned to look at Rouge, obviously a little annoyed at the interruption.  
  
"There's no point in taking them off if I'm just going to put them on again as soon as I wake up." He said simply. "Just get to sleep so we can get going in the morning." Rouge smirked slightly and stood up, stepping over toward Knuckles.  
  
"Sorry, now I'm curious, and you know how curious treasure hunters get." She said, now standing over Knuckles, bending down a bit.  
  
"Rouge, forget it." He said sternly. "I just prefer them on, okay?" Knuckles was starting to get agitated, what was wrong with wanting to keep his gloves on? Rouge persisted, though, eyeing the large gloves in front of Knuckles.  
  
"Come on, it will do you good to get them off for one night..." She said. Rouge reached out quickly to take hold of his hand, intent on removing it herself, only to have it snapped away just as quickly. She shifted her glance to Knuckles, now shooting a piercing glare into her eyes. Rouge took a step back from the reaction, her smirk gone and her curiosity dashed. She returned the glare, though not as viciously, then turned back to walk back to her side of the tree.  
  
"Fine, be touchy, keep the gloves on till your hands get too big to get them off for all I care." She spat, laying down on the floor of the tree's hollow with her back to Knuckles, using her removed gloves as a pillow and her wings as a blanket. She didn't take as much care with her boots, kicking them off to expose the rest of her body suit running down to her toes. Knuckles kept his eye on her until she was settled, then turned his back to her, as well, curling up to get comfortable enough to sleep.  
  
**********  
  
Only a few hours passed before Knuckles jumped up in his sleep with a small yell, sweating and panting. It was the nightmare again, Rouge falling into the lava, but he never had it two nights in a row. He looked across the tree hollow toward Rouge, hoping he hadn't woken her up. Luckily she was pretty deep in her sleep, still with her back to him. Knuckles couldn't explain it, he had thought letting Rouge stay close would relieve him of his nightmares, so why did they repeat so quickly with her right there?  
  
Watching Rouge's sleeping form and remembering the visions from the dream, Knuckles was starting to feel terrible about snapping at her before, she was only curious, that's a treasure hunter's nature. He was just so used to keeping to himself it was instinctive, but he never felt this bad when the same thing caused him to react badly to his other friends.  
  
Knuckles watched on, still in thought, when Rouge started to shift in her sleep, rolling over to her right and off her make-shift pillow, now facing Knuckles in her sleep. Like this Knuckles couldn't help but think she looked more peaceful than when she was awake and retorting to his every comment. Watching her like this, he suddenly noticed something, not about what he saw, but felt. An odd instinct, not something that just spawned in this moment, it felt like it had been there all along. Knuckles stood from his place and stepped over to her as quietly as he could manage. He walked over to her head, kneeling down to the gloves she had been using as a pillow and placing a hand beside them, putting the other under her head as carefully as he could. Knuckles gently lifted her head and slid the gloves back under her head, softly laying her head back on them. He stayed there a moment, watching her sleeping form from up close to make sure she stayed asleep before standing back up and returning to his place.   
  
Knuckles sat back down, again looking over at Rouge, now resting, obvious just by sight that she was more comfortable with her head off the hard wood. Knuckles took a moment to rethink this feeling he had and realized he had it before, but for the Master Emerald. It was a need to protect, to keep her safe. As strongly as he felt it out of instinct for the Emerald, he felt it out of emotion for Rouge, as though his life would end if he didn't. As strong as the feeling was, though, it was still confusing to have. He had a duty to the Master Emerald, but why feel the same need to protect Rouge? He had no reason to watch over her, she could take care of herself as well as he could, it was just logical she could handle anything as well as he could. But logic failed to shake the urge to keep her safe, confusing him further. Knuckles was getting too deep into thought for his own good and decided the morning was a better time to think this over. He laid back down and rested his head on his arms as he curled up again, the thoughts still floating in his mind. Knuckles ignored them as best he could until he fell asleep, but not before settling them with the same vow that he made to the Master Emerald. To protect her as long as he was able, regardless of the cost.  
  
End Chapter 2  
  
Next: Chapter 3 - Buried Truth 


	3. Buried Truths

The Greatest of Hunts  
  
By DreamShadow  
  
Chapter Three: Buried Truths  
  
"This is Rouge, reporting in." Rouge the Bat stood outside the thick tree she had spent the night in with Knuckles, holding her cell phone to her cheek. It was daybreak and the sun was only halfway up, again casting the scenery in an orange hue, though brighter than the night before. Knuckles was still asleep, though she noticed him tossing a bit, so she decided to report her progress now.  
  
"Be glad I'm a morning person, Ms. Rouge." The President responded through the phone. "Report." Rouge turned her head just enough to see if Knuckles was still asleep. He was, though he was becoming more restless, she had better be quick.  
  
"I've determined the best way to obtain the Master Emerald, but it will take several days." She replied. "This way the echidna won't immediately discover it has been taken and by the time he does it won't be traced back to me as easily." Of course she neglected to include why she didn't just grab the gem and run, she didn't want to explain that she had a friendship and respect for her supposed enemy that wouldn't be able to stand breaking.  
  
"...You are getting sloppy in your reports, Rouge." The President said after a moment of hesitation. "What are you planning and why is it the best way?" Rouge felt a chill in her spine, not sure how to answer and dreading the possibility that the truth might be the only thing she had to say. She stood there, the hand holding the phone trembling slightly, uncertain of what to do. The silence was broken when she heard Knuckles scream from the tree behind her, bringing a feeling of both worry and relief to Rouge.  
  
"He's waking up, breaking communications." She quickly hung up and put her phone away, letting out the rest of a breath she was holding. Rouge turned and stepped back into the tree, her pace faster than she intended, looking over at where Knuckles had laid down to sleep. He was now sitting up and panting, a sheen of sweat on his fur.  
  
"Must have been a nasty nightmare..." Rouge commented. Knuckles was still dazed from the sudden wake-up and hadn't thought of Rouge being there to see his nightmare problems. In a way it confused him more, it was the same nightmare, he wasn't able to save Rouge, he thought having her so close would relieve whatever caused the dream, but this was the first time he had the nightmare two nights in a row.  
  
"Let's just say it was something I'd rather not have to see..." He said, just now regaining some of his bearings. He stood up, slowly at first, then stretched out from the long night on the hard wood floor. Knuckles wiped the sweat from his forehead with his gloved fist, then turned to look at Rouge. Perfectly fine, no lava, no falling, which relieved him a bit.  
  
"So are you going to tell me?" She asked curiously. Knuckles glanced at her with a puzzled look, only to draw a smirk from her. "Come on, what was so scary about a nightmare that could make the thick-skinned, brave guardian Knuckles scream?" Did he actually scream? It was hard for the echidna to remember, if he did it was the last thing he wanted to explain right now. He shot her a serious look, expressing some annoyance in hopes she would forget about it.  
  
"That's my business, Rouge." He growled. "I don't have to let you tag along, you know, if you want to pester me you can go wait at the shrine until I get done." Rough sighed, turning her eyes away from Knuckles.  
  
"Fine, but the loner routine's going to make this a quiet trip..." She said coldly. Knuckles ignored her obvious irritation and turned to the backpack which held the shrunken Master Emerald, scooping it up in his gloved hand and swinging it over his shoulders. Glancing back at Rouge, his thoughts dwelled on his dream and why it only got worse if Rouge was so close. Maybe if she would actually leave him alone the rest of the trip he could think it out, but she would be right, the trip was too long to spend it in silence. Just then Rouge's glance met his, her eyes narrowing a bit.  
  
"What are you staring at?" She asked. "I know you don't get to see many girls on your little island but you don't have to burn a hole in me." Knuckles smirked slightly before looking away from her, stepping to the exit to continue the trip.  
  
"Just wondering how much you won't like this next part." Knuckles said as he walked away. Rouge wasn't sure what he was talking about, but she was quickly learning that Knuckles was fairly serious about anything he warned about.  
  
**********  
  
An hour of walking brought the two out of the thin forest and into a clearing. Ahead of them lay a lush green forest, perhaps a little too lush as it seemed the trees made almost solid walls in some parts of it. The place was a maze of tree trunks and branches and it didn't even look passable.  
  
"This was what you were talking about?" Rouge asked, looking over at Knuckles, who was wandering off to the side of the clearing toward a stack of rocks. He flexed his fingers inside his gloves before taking hold of the one in front, a rock about twice his size, and heaved it upward enough to set to the side, revealing a good sized tunnel leading downward.  
  
"No, this is." Knuckles said, indicating the hole. "There's no way to navigate that forest, I've never found a clear path all the way through it. So I tunneled under it." Rouge walked over to join Knuckles, her eyes fixed on the deep opening in the ground. Being a bat she was fine with caves but in such a small tunnel it wouldn't make her wings very useful, she wasn't comfortable anywhere she couldn't fly.  
  
"Typical, even when you go around something you're barging through something else." She joked with a smirk. He glared at her from the sides of his eyes, slightly annoyed. Knuckles turned to face her, trying to find the words just to get her to leave him alone.  
  
"Don't you ever lay off?" The echidna shouted. "I thought this was some social visit but all you've done is make these wisecracks the whole trip. Did you come just to practice your insults?" Knuckles didn't mean to make it sound so mean, but he didn't know how else to get the point across but to be as forceful as he could manage. He looked at Rouge closely for a reaction, but was surprised when, for a brief second, she almost looked hurt. If she was she was quick to hide it, her own temper coming out.  
  
"If you weren't so stuck on the whole loner routine then maybe I would lay off." She retorted. "How about I cut the insults when you drop a few of those personal walls of yours, hmm?" Knuckle's glare faded slightly. He had to take a moment to consider, he had already pulled that routine once today with the dream and did so the day before, as well. It wasn't any better than her constant jabs and probably wasn't right to keep so much from her, but he couldn't admit these things to Rouge when she was the center of them.  
  
"...how about I think about it on the way?" Knuckles said, returning to the original subject. "It's a long tunnel and we don't want to come up on the other side without some daylight." Knuckles quickly turned his back to Rouge and stepped closer to the hole, taking a brief look down before hopping into it. The white bat shook her head slightly in frustration before stepping to the hole herself, following in after Knuckles. The drop was at least fifteen feet down, a slightly slow fall as Rouge used her wings to float down and land soft on the rock floor below. With boots on solid ground she looked around, realizing this was closer to a cavern than a tunnel. The area was wide with stalagmites and eroded walls in every direction but behind and the floor was very uneven, though the rocks that made the floor were flat most of them were at different levels, some only an inch shorter or taller, some several feet higher. The roof was full of small holes and cracks where now-dead tree routes had broken the soft rock away, letting in just enough light to see the area.  
  
"Don't tell me you tunneled out all of this." Rouge said, still glancing around. Her voice quickly echoed in the cave, and took a moment to die out with such a closed in area. Knuckles was a few steps ahead already, having just dropped down instead of gliding. He was trying to remember which direction was right, it had been too long since he was down here to remember off hand.  
  
"No, the island has a lot of these around it." He explained, his back still toward Rouge. "The only tunneling I did was to connect these chasms underneath the forest. It's just been so long I can't remember where the exit tunnel to this one is, it's not a straight route..." The red echidna kept looking around, growing frustrated at his own forgetfulness. Rouge stood back and watched a second before stepping passed him and into his eyesight, making him stop and watch in curiosity.  
  
"Watch and learn, Knucklehead." Rouge said, hoping to catch some more attention with the annoying nickname. She reached down and picked up the first good-sized stone in arm's reach, tossing it up and down in her hand a few times to make sure the weight was right. Satisfied, Rouge closed her eyes and tossed the stone upward, far enough forward so it wouldn't land on her. Knuckles watched as the rock came down, banging against the floor of the cave with a notable thud. Nothing seemed to happen, though, until he noticed Rouge's ears both twitching quickly. The bat opened her eyes again and looked back at Knuckles, smirking.  
  
"Your hole's over to the right." She said. "You could have made it bigger, it's going to scrape my wings..." Knuckles blinked, not sure what just happened. He opened his mouth to ask when Rouge chuckled through her smirk, knowing the question. "I'm a bat, remember? We're built to get through caves with just our ears." The echidna mentally kicked himself for not figuring that one out on his own, but also for letting someone else tell him where his own tunnel paths were.  
  
"Well that's more helpful than my bad memory..." He finally admitted. "Think you could do that for the rest of the trip? We could take our time if we don't have to feel around for the right paths." Rouge was about to nod for the simple answer, then hesitated, the business side of her mind kicking in.  
  
"Under one condition." She said, catching Knuckle's attention. "I get us through this cave as long as you drop the loner routine. No more shrugging me off or changing subjects. Fair trade?" Knuckles glared slightly, notably annoyed at the prospect. However, he didn't want to be down in these tunnels at night or they would be feeling around in the dark and she would get the trip's time cut in half.  
  
"...fine, fair trade." He finally said, starting off in the direction she pointed them to. "Just... try not to ask anything too personal?" Rouge's sly smirk faded to a small smile as she nodded in response, following after Knuckles over the rocky landscape to the first of what was probably going to be a lot of these narrow tunnels.  
  
**********  
  
As the day wore on they continued stumbling through the caves and tunnels, with Knuckles best guess as the only way to know how far they were to the exit. The echidna was just now working himself through one of the narrower tunnels he had to make, the rock being too solid to dig out any farther. The hole was a few feet off the floor below, making Knuckles tumble as he wormed out the exit and onto the rocky platform. He rolled through, standing up quickly and running his head slightly from the rough landing. Knuckles turned back to watch Rouge making her way out, just now getting her head out the hole, her large ears dirty from rubbing against the narrow tunnel walls. The echidna smirked slightly and offered one of his large-gloved hands to help her out of the tunnel. Rouge glanced up at it, glaring at it first.  
  
"Knuckles, I don't need your-" She started, turning her glare up. Rouge was somewhat surprised to see he wasn't looking down like this was a mocking gesture, he was just waiting for her to take his hand. She cast her eyes back down, the glare faded out, before extending her own hand, taking firm hold of his. Knuckles smiled slightly and pulled up as Rouge moved her legs out, holding her up so she didn't have to tumble out like he did. Rouge put both boots to the stone ground, returning her now soft eyed back to Knuckle's own.  
  
"Thanks Knuckles." She said, glancing down slightly. Rouge was quick to notice the two were still holding hands and quickly broke before Knuckles could see the same, trying to avoid an embarrassment. "How much longer does this go on?" The echidna turned and jumped up the next tall rock, looking out. He smiled slightly at the sight before him, the brown stone they had been traveling through was taking a blue hue thanks to a crystal mineral imbedded in these rocks. Some of it was concentrated in a few spots and looked like it was literally growing out from the rocks. The holes in the roof were still present, but with the crystals in the stone shimmering the light was reflected in every direction, illuminating the whole cavern.  
  
"We're a little over halfway now." He said, turning his head enough to look back. "Come take a look at this, I don't think you're going to mind this cave." Rouge raised an eyebrow slightly before stepping over, giving her wings a quick beat to jump to the rock, landing just beside Knuckles. She looked out at the blue walls and glowing crystal, a smile crossing her face.  
  
"You didn't tell me about this cave." Rouge said, her eyes taking in the view, almost shimmering as much as the crystal. Knuckles just watched from the corner of his eye, smiling to himself.  
  
"I forgot about it myself." He explained. "Just don't get too excited, the crystal isn't anything special, I mean it's not diamond or anything, it's brittle." Knuckles hopped down to the next rock a few feet down, starting the walk through this blue-glowing cavern. Rouge was still looking around when Knuckles started walking, only realizing she was being left behind when he got far enough to be in her vision. She jumped forward off the ledge, making a quick glide to regain ground, letting her feet touch floor when she was back beside Knuckles. She turned to look at him, eyes narrowed.  
  
"Trying to leave me behind?" Rouge said, a slight joking tone to her voice. "I thought we agreed you'd drop the loner routine." Knuckles shrugged, smiling slightly at her.  
  
"I told you we need to make it out before dark, you were the one taking in the view." He explained. "Speaking of which, can you get a fix on the next exit?" Rouge nodded and quickly turned eyes to the ground, trying to find a suitable stone to get a read on the next tunnel. Before finding one she stopped, though, mind at work again, and turned back to Knuckles.  
  
"Hang on, I've been doing this for a while now and you haven't even had any point where you had to keep your end of the deal." She said. Knuckles was starting to realize this but he was hoping it would continue, he hated getting stuck explaining his own habits.  
  
"You haven't talked about anything since that deal where I could." He explained. "I didn't think the deal was important if you didn't use it right away." Rouge glared over at Knuckles, obviously upset at the comment.  
  
"I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't important, Knuckles." She snapped. Knuckles looked somewhat annoyed, but he didn't say anything. A silent moment passed between then, neither sure what to say next, Knuckles looking for an escape, Rouge looking to continue. "So, why don't I use it?" Rouge finally said to break the silence. "What about what I asked about first? Why were you so touchy with the gloves?" Knuckles clenched his fist, defensive again.  
  
"That's personal, Rouge, I don't have to tell you that!" He said quickly. Rouge's glare narrowed, her irritating growing.  
  
"And the nightmare?" She continued. "You have to tell me something, that's the deal, not everything can be private for you." Knuckles growled slightly, silently pleading for her to just stop and drop the whole idea before he burst.  
  
"If I don't want to tell you something, that's my business, you have no right to force it out of me." He spat. Rouge's own fists were clenched now, both of them letting their tempers get the best of them.  
  
"I'm not forcing anything!" She shouted. "Knuckles, for once in your life, someone's actually interested in knowing you better and all you do is get mad at every question they ask?!" This was getting to be too much, Knuckles just wanted her to shut up, he didn't care how.  
  
"Like I'd want a thief like you to know me any better?!" He yelled. The comment hit both of them hard, for a moment both forgot their anger, both somewhat stunned the comment was even said. Knuckles didn't mean to be that cruel, he was just too angry at the time to care... He shook his head, a glare still in his eyes, then started walking away, his back to Rouge. "Let's just go and get the trip over with..." Rouge watched him walk a few steps away, just now remembering how mad she got, and how furious the last comment made her.  
  
"Fine, if that's how you still think of me..." She muttered to herself. Rouge made a quick lunge forward toward Knuckles' back, bringing her leg up in a hard kick aimed for his backpack. Her kicks were as hard as Knuckles' own punch and the hit knocked him off his feet, dropping him forward to the ground, but it also hit the Master Emerald in the backpack hard enough to make it hit the top flap and open the clasp holding it in, sending the shrunken crystal flying a few yards ahead. Knuckles looked up in time to see the gemstone hit a stone ledge hard, a shattering sound echoing in the cave as a shard of the stone broke off and started bouncing down the descending stone path before them. Separated from the main crystal, the shard gained it's normal size, becoming a large shard as it landed down the steps on a large platform.  
  
"We'll just go back to the old days!" Rouge said, jumping over Knuckles and down the steps, aiming to land near the shard. Knuckles growled through his teeth and pushed himself up, bounding down the steps, making his best effort to get there first. Rouge landed first, reaching down quickly and grabbing the narrower end of the shard, but as she pulled it closer Knuckles was already there, his large mitts on the wider end.  
  
"Knock it off, Rouge!" He said, giving the shard a sharp tug, though her grip was too good on her end. The bat responded with a tug of her own, a surprisingly strong one, but not enough to make Knuckles let go.  
  
"After everything we went through on the Arc, after these days of travel, if you still only think I'm some lowly thief, then that's just what I'll be!" She tried to tug again as she spoke, but Knuckles was still holding too tightly and responded with a tug of his own, pulling it back towards him. This time, however, there was a sound to it he didn't notice before, almost like a tearing sound. Knuckles looked down at his grip on the shard, noticing the material on his gloves was frayed around the edges where he was gripping the shard. It must have broken oddly, the edges were sharper than they should have been... Then a sudden realization hit, the sharper end was still pointed at Rouge and if his gloves kept ripping...  
  
"What's the matter, losing grip?" Rouge said, breaking his thoughts. Though his glare faded, Rouge's only sharpened. "Too bad!" She twisted her body with this pull, her hardest yet against the shard, Knuckles now just holding on hoping his gloves would hold. His hopes failed as a loud tearing noise echoed in the caves, his grip failing with a mess of torn material following the motion of the shard, which ended with Rouge's eyes suddenly going wide. Knuckles felt his heart stop suddenly, a panic setting in before he even knew what was going on. Rouge dropped the shard to her side, falling to her knees, both hands on her side. Knuckles pulled himself together enough to step closer and kneel down, looking at the shard, now blood-stained, and then to Rouge's side. He reached over, his hand trembling for some reason, like he was scared of how bad this could be under her hands. Finally he took hold of her wrist and pulled it away, looking at the injury. Knuckles let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, it was a long cut against her side, deep in the middle, but it was hardly the fatal stab he feared. Rouge's own eyes still showed panic, herself too scared to look to see how bad it was.  
  
"Just relax, it's not fatal..." Knuckles said, at a loss for words that could comfort her. He looked around quickly, his dreadlocks flailing from his motions, looking for anything to bandage the injury. Nothing around them, and his backpack didn't have any first aid supplies. He thought to try Rouge's own glove but it was leather, too hard to tie off securely and it wouldn't soak up the blood to help clot it. Knuckles ran out of options when he looked himself over for any spare material he had to use, just shoes and... his gloves, already ripped, looked like the only option. His own vanity aside, Knuckles quickly took hold of the loose material, circling his hand around his glove to get a strip of cloth out of the glove. He finished ripping the cloth from one hand and quickly repeated the other, not willing to take the chance one wasn't going to be enough.  
  
Both eventually became a long bandage, ripped just right to be a long strip of material. Knuckles was taking extra care to get it over Rouge's injury and secure it as he wrapped her midsection. He was glad she was so athletic, if her waist were any wider the material wouldn't have been enough. By now Rouge was out of her daze and watching Knuckles work, the pain in her side aching but somehow ignorable.  
  
"There, that's all I can do..." Knuckles said, tying off the makeshift bandage and sitting back. Rouge looked over at Knuckles, their fight forgotten now, just now noticing his hands. Red-furred, like the rest of him, but from the backs of his fists was bare bone sticking out from the flesh, rounded off on the ends from years of abuse. It was an ugly sight, no wonder he was so touchy about the gloves, but she didn't bring it up.  
  
"Knuckles, about earlier..." She said hesitantly, ready to apologize. Knuckles looked over and shook his head, not wanting to get back into it. She nodded in silent response, looking down at the bandages at her side, a slight red hue now soaking through. "...let's at least get going, you said we have to hurry." Rouge tried to stand up off her knees, but was stopped by Knuckles' hand on her shoulder, pushing her back down to a sitting position.  
  
"We're not going anywhere until the bleeding stops." He said. "Besides, I still have to repair the emerald before we keep going... Just rest for a while." Knuckles looked over and picked up the large shard, being careful of the sharp edges with his bare hands, then stood and stepped over to the reduced Master Emerald. Rouge watched him as he worked, shrinking the shard again and resetting it in the stone, a light coming from the cracks in the gem as it healed itself.  
  
"...Rouge, some people keep to themselves for a reason." Knuckles said, his back still to Rouge. "I have to guard this emerald for the rest of my life, it's too powerful to leave unguarded for too long... I'm to be denied any kind of happy life because of this... curse. I've always been afraid of someone getting too close to me because I don't want to make this curse theirs, as well... I don't want someone else to be denied their freedom because of me." Rouge sat in silence, the pain of the wound ignored, a little in disbelief. She was starting to regret being so forceful with getting anything out of Knuckles, she didn't mean it to be so intrusive. But she didn't know the reason he was doing it, either.  
  
Rouge continued to watch Knuckles work, just now becoming aware of something. A tightness in her chest, a longing in her heart... Knuckles had only showed any kind of caring before when she was falling to her death over a lava pool, when he apologized for hurting her... It was when she first had this feeling, the reason she was interested in knowing him better. She dwelled on it a little longer, thinking, imagining, and realizing. An image came to mind, a sudden though that she wouldn't mind sharing Knuckles' so-called curse with him, she would even want to stay with him... In the events of the day, Rouge came to realize that somehow, despite the arguments and differences, she was falling in love with the red echidna in front of her.  
  
End Chapter 3  
  
Next: Chapter 4 - Rain in the Night 


	4. Rain in the Night

The Greatest of Hunts  
  
By DreamShadow  
  
Chapter Four: Rain in the Night  
  
Several hours passed in the crystal-decorated cavern, the light now starting to dim from the hour of the day. Rouge was still laying on the ground, propped up against a large crystal to sit almost upright. Knuckles had been sitting nearby on a stone step, watching over her since the Master Emerald's repair was finished. Despite a complaint from Rouge about every ten minutes, Knuckles wouldn't let them continue until he was sure her bleeding had stopped. This overprotection surprised Rouge as well as Knuckles, but in the echidna's case it was equally confusing. It had taken a while to realize that he had taken care of Rouge before the Master Emerald. For the first time in his life something seemed more important to him than his duty, but what made Rouge so important? Maybe if he hadn't lived so secluded for so long he might have a better idea, but that was part of what caused this in the first place...  
  
Knuckles decided not to dwell on it any longer, he had too much to figure out as it was. The Master Emerald was repaired and it seemed like Rouge's injury had stopped bleeding long enough for her to continue without worrying about it reopening. The echidna stood from his spot on the stone step, pulling the backpack carrying the emerald with him as he stood. He swung it over his shoulders quickly, then stepped over to Rouge, catching her attention.  
  
"Ready to go?" He asked simply, extending his still-bare hand to help her up. His voice wasn't as gruff as usual, there was still some concern that made Rouge feel like if she said no he would still let her rest until she said yes. Despite that, she reached up and took his hand, pulling in sequence with him until she was back on her feet. Rouge quickly let go of Knuckles' palm, remembering the last time she let that slip and not wanting to repeat it.  
  
"Yeah, sooner the better..." She said, taking a second to brush the dirt off of her pants. Rouge stood upright from this, though too quickly as a sharp pain ran through her, her injury irritated by the sharp movement, and instinct telling her to bend forward again to relieve the pain. Knuckles caught the action and moved closer to help somehow, just to be waived off by Rouge, who stood upright again, slower this time.  
  
"No way, I'm sick of you jumping every time I flinch." She spat. "Besides, I thought we were in a hurry." In all that happened Knuckles almost forgot they were on a schedule. He looked up at the ceiling and the light coming from all the cracks and holes in the cave ceiling that the forest above made, the light from them was obviously dimmer. It didn't feel late enough in the day, though, still it meant they had to hurry before they had to wander blind.  
  
"Alright, if you're sure you're okay..." He said. With a nod from Rouge to confirm that, Knuckles started off again, walking in the last direction Rouge had indicated, with the white bat following close behind, holding one arm across her midsection, her hand holding the wound.  
  
The trek was getting easier as they went, with the paths smoothening out and connecting tunnels getting easier to find without the aid of Rouge's sonar hearing. Still the light was getting dimmer by the minute and it wouldn't be long before the caves were too dark to navigate. The two were now stepping out of another connecting tunnel when a wave of relief came over Knuckles, they had stepped into the last chamber of the cave, a smaller room with less light but one large boulder lodged in the ceiling where the tunnel was covered like the entrance was. The echidna stepped forward, but quickly heard something odd under his feet, a slight splash accompanied with the feeling of something squishing under his sneaker. He looked down, finding his green and yellow shoe stepping in a thin layer of mud on the floor, part of a layer of mud extending from under the exit.  
  
"Oh no, no..." Knuckles pleaded under his breath. He quickly stepped through the thin layer of mud and over to the large stone in the ceiling, quickly putting both hands on it's bottom. The red echidna let out a grunt as he shoved upward, the rock grinding against the stones around it as it moved, revealing the exit of the long tunnel, and also letting in a downpour of water drops that quickly found Knuckles' head. The echidna grunted again, out of effort and disgust, giving the boulder one last shove as it fell forward, a loud thud erupting from the now-revealed opening.  
  
"I take it you weren't hoping for a storm..." Rouge said, stepping forward for a better look out the hole. Knuckles jumped forward to the rear wall, letting his knuckles dig into the wall, flinching at the effort. He forgot how much that stung without the padding from his gloves. Regardless, he kicked off the wall and upward out of the hole, landing on the edge. He turned and kneeled down over the side, reaching down for Rouge's hand to pull her up. The white bat thought about just repeating the effort Knuckles just made, but with her wound still fresh, she thought better of it. She made a quick leap to grab onto Knuckles' extended hand, letting the echidna pull her up until she could put feet to solid ground.  
  
The two stood and looked around at the scenery. Behind them was the forest, thinner than the other side but still looking too difficult to pass through. In front, however, was completely different. It looked like a vast desert, expanding out in every direction, but unlike most, this one was littered with ruins of ancient buildings and technology long since abandoned. And it spanned different heights, unlike a typical flat desert there were cliffs, tall hills, even drop points that lead into underground ruins. It almost looked surreal.  
  
"This is Sandopolis..." Knuckles explained. "I wanted to reach this place just as it got dark so it wouldn't be so hot, we could take our time and finish in the morning. But by morning the rain will evaporate and make this place too humid to tolerate." Rouge looked down at her feet and noticed they were on a rock surface just at the edge of the sand. Even in the dark she could see how soaked the sand was and realized how fast a desert heat would evaporate it.  
  
"Well you know this place, can we cross in one night?" She asked, hoping for a positive answer. Knuckles looked around, recalling all the different paths and directions this area had, then turned his head to look at her.  
  
"If you weren't hurt, I'd be sure we could, but..." He started. Knuckles was about to continue when Rouge's hand came up over his mouth, stopping him.  
  
"Yeah, like I'm going to let you baby me more?" She said with a smirk. "I'll be fine, just lead the way, Knucklehead." Knuckles' eyes narrowed at the quick jab to his ego. Still, it was small price to pay if it was as harsh as she was going to get, he couldn't help but notice her claws had been pulled in, as it were. Maybe it was her form of gratitude for bandaging her injury and showing concern. He left it at that, turning and starting across the desert over the stone pathways in the sand. Rouge was quick to follow, though her pace was slow from the stinging wound on her side.  
  
**********  
  
Hours passed as the two walked, neither saying much for their own reasons. For Knuckles, he was discovering that while trying to find one answer to his many questions, he only came up with harder questions. It was starting to strain his mind going through it all, but he had little choice, at this rate if he didn't figure it all out he would be buried in it. For Rouge, she was coming to grips with her new realization. Was she really in love with Knuckles? She admitted to herself that after he saved her life, she did have an attraction, but passed it off as a crush or strong friendship. After watching the concern he had for her, though, Rouge couldn't deny this new feeling.  
  
Their trip wasn't getting any easier, either. The downpour had gotten worse, drenching the sand around them as well as the stone pathways they were still taking. Rouge was walking behind Knuckles, her wings folded over her head like a makeshift umbrella, while Knuckles didn't seem to be bothered by the rain pelting him. The white bat glanced around as they walked, taking note of entrances to the lower areas and through the various pyramids and structures.  
  
"You're sure there isn't a dryer path we could take?" She asked for at least the fourth time, not enjoying this drenching. The echidna in front of her just shook his head, lightly tossing water off his dreadlocks as he did so.  
  
"Trust me, none of those paths are worth taking just to be dry." He stated. "Some of those structures are giant mazes, we'd be in there for days. When going around would take minutes, you think that's a good trade-off?" That was the fourth time Knuckles gave the response, though Rouge noted he was making it seem longer every time... She sighed as she realized there wasn't any way out of the rain, pushing onward.  
  
Their silent walk stretched on for hours, from mid day into mid night, the stone paths and field of sand and ruins seeming to be endless, as did the storm clouds overhead which continued to soak the two travelers. Their path was now taking them along side a large stone pyramid with many of it's massive stones missing, either destroyed or worn away from time. Knuckles glanced ahead at the wall that the path was against, noticing one of those missing blocks left a large alcove at ground level.  
  
"Good, we can get out of the rain for a while..." He said, making his way over. Rouge was quick to follow under the hole in the pyramid, glad to get out of the rain. The alcove was easily tall and wide enough for the both of them, even deep enough to lay down if they wanted. Rouge's wings came down, wrapping around her arms and front side to warm up faster. Knuckles shrugged his shoulders, tossing the backpack straps from them, moving it down to the ground. From how much heavier it got with the rain water soaked in, he was glad to be rid of it.  
  
"Couldn't your ancestors pick an easier island to navigate to launch into the sky?" Rouge asked, turning to look at Knuckles. He was in the middle of ringing water out of his dreadlocks, taking them in both hands one at a time.  
  
"I think that was the idea, it makes it hard to get to the emerald's hideaway." He said. "It's not much farther, though, soon as we dry off a bit we can finish the trip through here and find a place to sleep, we'll be there before midday." Rouge was relieved to hear that, this leg of the trip wasn't as hard as it was tedious, the desert seemed so massive that it was just a relief to know it had an end.  
  
"How do you stand this, anyway?" She said, turning to look at him. "Days of walking through forests, in underground caves, passed a desert, just to drop off your pet rock?" Knuckles was hoping that question was answered when they started this trip on the Floating Island, he knew he'd only get on her bad side if he kept his secrets much longer. Until now he got away with just telling her it was from distractions, how was he supposed to say it was her distracting him?  
  
"I told you, I just need a break from it, just until a few distractions pass by." He explained. Rouge's eyes narrowed, growing frustrated by the constant dodging he did in his explanations.  
  
"You can't use that dodgy language forever..." She said. "You live on a small flying island, what do you possibly have to be distracted by? Unless Eggman moved in next door to you, I don't buy it. I would hope by now you trusted me enough to tell me what this big problem is." Knuckles shook his head to shoot down that idea, trying not to let this degenerate into another argument.  
  
"It's not that I don't trust you, some things I just prefer to keep to myself." Knuckles said. "My life's not easy, Rouge, I've explained part of it already, remember?" He was hoping it could end there, he explained the Master Emerald was as much a curse as a duty, that should be enough. He would find no such luck as Rouge only grew more angry.  
  
"Yeah, right, you've got the easiest life any guardian of anything could ask for." Rouge said. "Small island, one rock in the middle to watch, you can see anything coming in every direction, and besides that how could you be so stressed with scenery that good?" Knuckles was trying his hardest not to let his temper get the better of him, though he couldn't help but be somewhat agitated.  
  
"Look who's taking about an easy life." He responded. "You work for a president, get paid in jewels, your life is the definition of easy." Something about those words struck a nerve with Rouge, making it worse by her already flared temper. She opened her wings violently, splashing the remaining water on them against Knuckles.  
  
"Don't you dare assume you know what my life is like!" Rouge shouted. The outburst surprised them both, Rouge immediately regretting the outburst. She lowered her head slightly, turning her glance down from Knuckles. "You don't know what it's like..." She continued, her voice calm now, almost sad. "Look at your own life, you tell anyone what you do and you get the same reaction. You protect a powerful gem from falling into corrupt hands, sacrifice any kind of life you could have so a madman doesn't decimate a city while it sleeps. Not one person could judge you any differently for something so selfless, nobody would doubt you were a hero." Knuckles listened carefully as Rouge spoke, if not for the understanding of it than just to know Rouge better, he had never heard the white bat speak of her own life.  
  
"My life... No, my life doesn't go like that." She continued. "I do what I do because it's how I survive, it's what I do best. I don't have a choice but to live like this. If someone knows that, it's always the same, I'm just a petty thief or spy or whatever job I'm on that day... I try to justify it, I tell myself I'm a treasure hunter, even I know that's a lie, though." She returned her eyes upward, looking at Knuckles. "Working for a president doesn't justify it, either. When I get put on a job it's not because of my qualifications, it's not my skill, he could have anyone trained to do what I do. It's because he knows I'm a thief, I willingly commit crime to survive, better me than let any of his yes-men get their hands dirty..." Rouge turned her head away, trying to find the words to continue, but it was so hard, she never told anyone about this, how she felt about how she had to live. As it was she was amazed she got this much out.   
  
Before she could find the words her concentration was broken as she felt a hand rest on her shoulder, Knuckles's hand. Rouge turned her head back to look at him, his eyes filled with an odd look, as if he actually understood.  
  
"I'm sorry, I didn't know..." He said, his voice in a rare gentle tone. "You're right, I can't really understand what it's like... but if it makes you feel better, you're not a thief to me, not in my eyes." Knuckles wasn't sure how this even sounded, he wasn't good at comforting anyone. As for Rouge, she was finding it hard to believe Knuckles was even making the attempt, it was enough for her. It was odd, he couldn't understand, he admitted that... but she felt better just knowing he tries to. And if only for that brief moment, the same feeling she had when she first found an attraction to the red echidna had returned, it was those brief moments he dropped the tough exterior that made her remember it.  
  
"...let's get some rest." Knuckles said, realizing the moment was getting awkward, taking his hand from her shoulder. "It's not much farther and the alcove will keep us dry for the night." Rouge nodded in response, still a little in disbelief at what just took place. In such a brief time the two shared a lot, in knowledge and emotion, with both of them feeling like they needed a night's rest to take it all in.  
  
**********  
  
A couple hours passed before Rouge was awakened by a vibration in her back pocket, an alarm built into her cell phone when it was time for a report. Rouge awoke from her sleep, slowly opening her eyes and glancing about, careful not to move more than her gaze. Across the alcove was Knuckles, sleeping on his side, facing inward. He looked like he was in a deep enough sleep, anyone that could sleep on solid stone without so much as a pillow should sleep through one phone call.  
  
Rouge slowly stood up, lightly stepping out of their resting spot, a task aided with her boots being off. The rain had become a light drizzle, just occasional drops still falling, much to Rouge's relief. Even if the morning was going to be blazing hot, at least it would be dry. She stepped away carefully, careful not to make a sound, getting a good distance down the stone path where she could report in without Knuckles hearing the call. Once she was satisfied with the distance Rouge removed the phone from her back pocket, opening it as she brought it around, looking down at it.  
  
As she looked at it, though, all the feelings Rouge was trying to figure out through the day rushed back at once. Fear of going against her orders, love for the echidna behind her, but most of all, the confusion that was without end. She couldn't turn back on this assignment, not after the threats against her if she didn't go through with it. What good would Knuckles's trust be if she was in jail? But at the same time she didn't want to hurt Knuckles, she was just figuring out it wasn't his trust she was scared of losing, it was Knuckles himself. Her free hand found the wound on her side and the bandages over it, made from Knuckles's gloves, remembering all the events of the day between the two. She just wanted this over with, move on to a point where she didn't have to lie to Knuckles anymore or go behind his back just to follow orders. Rouge closed the cell phone up again, too confused to know what to do or even be able to fake a report. This whole situation was nothing but slow mental torture, like some medieval rack stretching her in two directions and either one might finish her.  
  
Her attention was broken as the phone began ringing, her employers apparently getting impatient for a report. Rouge quickly clasped the cell phone between her hands, silencing the noise in case it was loud enough to wake up Knuckles. She glanced over from where she stood, looking back at the alcove, sighing in relief when she didn't see Knuckles or hear him stir. She returned her glance to her hands, waiting for the phone to stop ringing. Rouge was too torn between her job and her desires right now to have to talk to them, she couldn't explain it to them and she wasn't in any shape to make up a story right now. The ringing lasted a good minute before the phone went silent again, letting Rouge loosen her grip. They'd hopefully think she was in a spot that prevented her from answering that didn't require a search and rescue operation. She would have to check in tomorrow to prevent that from happening.  
  
Rouge put the cell phone away, hoping her superiors wouldn't give it a second attempt. She turned back, taking a few steps back to the large alcove Knuckles was resting in. The white bat softened her footsteps as she approached, looking around the corner into the open room to be careful not to wake the echidna up. She stopped when she noticed Knuckles tossing and mumbling, for a second thinking she was waking him up. Rouge waited a moment before recognizing this, Knuckles tossed the same way last night, just before she went to make her phone call, and just a moment before he screamed as he woke up. His back was to her, but just from the way his body twitched it was obvious how bad it bothered him. Just watching him made Rouge upset, all he did for her, the concern he was showing, and she didn't know how to even help him sleep through the night.  
  
Rouge thought it over a moment before deciding all she could do was comfort him, he had been alone so much of his life maybe it was all he needed. She stepped over carefully, keeping her footsteps quiet, walking to where she had put her gloves and boots on the ground like a pillow. Rouge bent down on one knee, picking up the stack of leather clothes, standing up and stepping over to Knuckles. His back was still turned to her, though his twitches had gotten worse. As softly as she could Rouge kneeled down again and laid the pile of clothing near Knuckles' head, growing nervous. She didn't want Knuckles to wake up and get the wrong idea about this.  
  
Rouge gently reached out and set her hand on Knuckles' waist, testing the waters at it were, to see if it would wake him. He seemed too deep in sleep or too occupied with this nightmare of his, he didn't even jump. The white bat laid down on her side, resting her head on the makeshift pillow, hand still on Knuckles' waist. There was a nervous chill in her spine, surprising her since she never got nervous. This was just so unlike her it was bizarre to know she was doing it by choice... But she had to do something. She laid only an inch or two from him, moving her arm across his midsection to drape over his waist in a light embrace. With one wing tucked in, she stretched out the other, moving it over Knuckles' like a small blanket over his side. It was as much as she could do without risking waking him up. She watched his movements for a while, wondering if it was working or not, but not able to tell. A few minutes passed before she dozed off herself, laying so close to Knuckles giving her a sense of comfort she never got in her life, it made it so easy to relax she couldn't help herself.  
  
**********  
  
  
  
Knuckles found himself back on the platform above the magma pool, again watching Rouge step toward him. He wanted so badly for it to just end here, before it happened all over again, just when he was getting some bearings on things. It didn't happen. Knuckles watched Rouge's heel slip, her leg buckling, and her tumble off the platform. He felt like screaming but he couldn't make the noise out, he couldn't control anything, just watch. He again made his best effort to move fast enough to reach her, save her from falling. All he could do was watch and listen, her own screams drowning out, his own heart racing, beating like it would burst.  
  
Something was off this time, though... When the dream got to it's worst, something changed. Knuckles could hear a second heartbeat, fainter than his own, slower, more calm. Something about it pierced through Knuckles' heart, making him feel a warmth he never felt before. His own heartbeat stopped it's frantic pace, slowing down as he calmed, falling into rhythm with this second heart. Somehow it just gave him a feeling of comfort, like nothing was wrong.  
  
Wrapped up in this new sensation, Knuckles barely realized his hand was now gripping Rouge's, both dangling over the side of the platform. Rouge's fall was stopped, the nightmare ended, and Knuckles' fears disappeared.  
  
End Chapter 4  
  
Next: Chapter 5 - Greater Heights 


	5. Greater Heights

The Greatest of Hunts  
  
By DreamShadow  
  
Chapter Five: Greater Heights  
  
The next morning a somewhat-dazed Knuckles yawned upon waking up. He opened his eyes slowly, still slightly heavy from the long night's sleep... then opened somewhat quickly when the realization hit. He remembered having the nightmare again, what would have been the third night in a row, but he remembered how it changed and then realized he actually slept through it...  
  
As his eyes adjusted Knuckles noticed he was oddly warm for having no blanket... He glanced down and was quite surprised to see a wing over his side, Rouge's wing to be exact... Knuckles only then realized she was behind him, still asleep against his back apparently, her breathing was still slow and steady. He looked down passed the wing to find Rouge's arm was also around his midsection in embrace, but what he didn't expect was to find his own hand in the night had found hers and was lightly holding onto it on top of hers. Knuckles hadn't even noticed it, but also didn't find himself removing his hand, just as content to leave it there.  
  
The red echidna laid there quiet, trying not to wake Rouge up, but not wanting this to end so soon, as well. He couldn't remember a time in his life he felt this comforted, actually at peace, no worrying about an emerald, no fighting Eggman, just the quiet sound of Rouge's breathing and the feel of her heartbeat against his back... It was the same heartbeat that interrupted his dream, the one that calmed him so much and made the nightmare nothing but a memory. Had Rouge been sleeping so close to him all night? It seemed more like it was just how she rolled over in her sleep, but she must have done this intentionally... Knuckles was so used to living his life alone and here in three days Rouge let her defenses and pride down just for him to sleep through the night, it was unimaginable.  
  
Knuckles started to doze off again, content to stay like this a little longer and sleep in, except Rouge had different plans as she started to stir, rolling over the other way, her arm and wing pulled from Knuckles in the process. The echidna was somewhat surprised to be irritated at his sleep cycle's bad timing for waking him up just as she did that. Regardless he didn't have much to do now but get up and stretch out, getting the stiffness of a night's sleep on solid stone out of his system.  
  
The red echidna stepped around Rouge's still-sleeping form and out of the alcove, looking up from the desert landscape. He didn't realize until he looked upward that it wasn't that bright, the storm clouds of the previous night weren't gone yet and though they were no longer raining, they were still thick enough to keep the desert sun from beating down on them. Knuckles turned around to glance at Rouge, who was taking this moment to push herself up from her night's sleep, obviously handling it a little better with her boots and gloves giving her a pillow.  
  
"You picked an odd way to sleep, didn't you..." Knuckles said. Rouge glanced away slightly, just remembering what she did last night. She was afraid if she made eye contact she might end up blushing, she wouldn't have been able to live with herself for it.  
  
"...you looked cold, that's all." She explained, preferring not to explain why she really did it. "You were still soaked, you shivered in your sleep." Knuckles wasn't sure if she was lying or not, it was hard to tell with her looking away... like she was trying to avoid embarrassment rather than lie.  
  
"If you say so..." He replied, not wanting to dig any deeper. "...thanks, though. It's been a while since I slept that well." Knuckles didn't seem to know what he was saying until he was done saying it. The comment drew Rouge's attention, surprising the white bat by the sudden drop in defenses.  
  
"...don't mention it." She replied hesitantly. "Just making sure you slept well enough to finish the trip." Knuckles was somewhat surprised that Rouge didn't return with the usual quick jab of an insult. Thinking back on the last few days with Rouge, he began to realize she had been slowly retracting her claws the whole time. When it began, her insults had some acid to them, then they were just in jest, and now non-existent.  
  
"The trip won't last much longer, anyway." Knuckles explained, putting this new curiosity aside with the rest of the piled up thoughts he had collected on this trip. He glanced down the path they had yet to take, off into the distance. "We're less than an hour from the edge of the desert, from there it's simple." Rouge stood up, stomping slightly on her newly replaced boots, making sure they were on right. She stepped over to Knuckles, still pulling her gloves on as she walked, looking out at what he was looking at. Off in the distance stood the trip's most imposing sight, a large volcano, still somewhat active by the looks of the black smoke rising out of the top.  
  
"...You're kidding me, that's supposed to be simple?" Rouge said in confusion. "What kind of definition are you using?" Knuckles smirked slightly, glad he still had something to surprise her with but also somewhat disappointed that she didn't know better by now.  
  
"I thought you would notice by now, everything but the desert has had a shortcut." He explained, drawing a curious look from her. "You'll see when we get there." Knuckles's eyes passed downward, looking at the bandages around her waist, one of her hands over the wound, possibly without her even realizing.  
  
"How is your wound doing?" Knuckles asked. Rouge glanced down, just realized she was holding on to where she was cut by the emerald shard. She quickly put her hand down, not wanting to show if it was bothering her.  
  
"Still sore, but it's doing better." Rouge said. "You don't have to worry about me so much, you're starting to make me think you actually care." The comment was said in joke, but it managed something unexpected, Knuckles turning away instinctively to hide a slight blush, something he never did in his life! The echidna wasn't even sure why he did it, he just couldn't help it. He wasn't even sure if he could stand anything else he had to figure out as it was.  
  
"Uh... Let's just get going before those clouds break." He said quickly, starting off. Rouge watched him walk a second, not entirely sure what just happened. Did that comment really make him that uncomfortable? She was starting to lose hope of ever being able to read Knuckles... She shrugged it off and started after him, still trying to decide how to read that reaction.  
  
**********  
  
The day progressed on without much excitement, the clouds overhead seemed to thin considerably as they walked through the edge of the desert, the sun nowhere near as intense as it would have been in the middle of Sandopolis. As they approached the base of the volcano Rouge now noticed the lush foliage surrounding the base and extending up the side, thick but not nearly dense enough to block their way.  
  
Knuckles stepped farther ahead of Rouge, approaching a patch of tall grasses and large leaves as tall as he was, moving his hands to pull the plants apart. He stepped into the patch, making his way through carefully, cautious of breaking any of the plants and revealing whatever they were hiding. Rouge picked up on her companion's unusually careful movement and followed suit, stepping through the grasses carefully.  
  
"I'm still waiting for this shortcut, Knuckles." Rouge said. "I don't intend to claw my way up a volcano if that's what you had in mind." Knuckles remained silent, knowing the answer would be obvious in a minute. He stepped out of the foliage into an open area, with Rouge close behind. In front of them stood a small platform with what looked like a large purple ball held by an almost alien device.  
  
"It's a transport sphere." Knuckles explained, stepping over to it. "After Eggman first went after the Master Emerald I had to go the long way through the volcano to catch up with him and barely missed him. This was my first solution before I moved the smaller island away to guard the emerald, they would have worked but they have too limited a range." Rouge stepped over to the large sphere, putting a hand over it, moving it across the top as if making sure such a thing was real.  
  
"So what happens now, wish where we want to go and click heels together?" She said, looking over to Knuckles. He smirked slightly to her before making a quick leap up to stand on the emerald, turning back and looking down at her.  
  
"Hop on. It goes to a cliff at the middle of the mountain, we can rest there before finishing up." Knuckles explained. In reality they could finish in the next few minutes, but it would end the trip and he still had so much to figure out about her and how he was acting around her. He stepped back as Rouge bound up, landing just in front of him. She looked down at the orb that was now under their feet, expecting something from it.  
  
That came quickly in the form of a bright flash of light, making Rouge hide her eyes from the brightness. The light faded fast, letting Rouge open her eyes again, glancing about. The sphere had done it's job as she found herself standing on a different orb with a high view of the island, most of what they crossed through in the last couple of days in view. She hopped down to the large cliff under them, glancing around at what was closer to a plateau than a cliff, the area even including more of the same foliage from the base level, with the inclusion of a set of fruit trees near the middle, and a small lake with a slight steam to it.  
  
"Well, this island even has hot springs..." She noted, stepping closer to the hot water pond. "Between this and that crystal cavern, I'm tempted to move in." Knuckles hopped off the emerald, landing beside Rouge, who was still taking in scenery. The plateau's pond was just the size of a pool and cut off by an extension of the rock face of the volcano that cut the platform almost in half save for a path through the foliage that edged the cliff.  
  
"Let's get the Master Emerald to it's resting place before we look at real estate." He said, pulling the backpack off and setting it down. "Last chance to rest or clean up before we're done, after this all we have is one more trip through the sphere." Rouge nodded in response, stepping away from Knuckles. If this was their last chance before the trip was over she'd have to report in now and just make sure Knuckles wouldn't hear her make the call.  
  
"Right, then I'll just get in a nap, take it easy on the wound till you're ready." Rouge said. She walked passed the pond and to the line of tall rocks lined with fruit trees, walking passed and disappearing from view behind them. Knuckles watched her walk off, wondering what she needed to be alone for just to rest... Maybe she didn't want anything he did to wake her up.  
  
On the other hand it was the first time Knuckles was alone since this trip began. He stepped over to the hot spring, sitting cross-legged at it's edge. At least he'd have some time to himself, it was time without distraction to think about all the things that had been weighing on his mind, including this newest one. He blushed! Knuckles, last of the echidnas, rock hard guardian, and he blushed! It was as humiliating as it was confusing! Why would he just do that out of nowhere? Especially over what caused it, a joking comment implying he didn't care.  
  
Why would she think that, though? He took care of her when she was injured, sacrificing his one vanity to do so, the gloves that hid his vile-looking hands with the sharp bone sticking from them. Sure, there have been times on this trip where tempers were flared but they made up and went on, he never even apologized to Sonic for their arguments but it was different with Rouge.  
  
Wait, wait, he was getting ahead of himself. Thinking this through Knuckles just realized the core here, did he really care for Rouge? The way he was thinking this out, he was assuming he did, was he really so stuck on being the lone guardian that he was oblivious to his own feelings? Those were his old habits haunting him, though, he was always like that. Even when he was on a mission with Sonic and Tails his only mindset was to just get his part of the job done so he could leave and return to his watch over the Master Emerald. He just didn't realize that until now, it was just so hard to see beyond something he had been doing since before he could remember. It took this situation with Rouge to make him realize that.  
  
What if that was what it was? Not just caring about Rouge, it didn't feel like the right term. Maybe it was something he didn't realize he could feel... it felt strange, almost alien. Sitting here, thinking these last few days over, he came to realize how much he did that he never did before, like worry about her condition when she got hurt or feel bad after an argument. And the things he never felt before, the concern, the companionship... and again, the caring he didn't know how to describe. He only realized that part this morning when he awoke with Rouge embracing him, the calm he felt with her that close and how it calmed his nightmares...  
  
Thinking this over so much, Knuckles realized another feeling. He felt lonely... He glanced around, hoping Rouge was back by now, but what felt like hours was mere minutes. It was bizarre, like something from his soul was missing, leaving a deep void. He never stayed with anyone for such a long time, never had these experiences before with anyone, he didn't know what to think. Then his thoughts passed on a possibility that actually scared him, what if he felt this way constantly? A few days with Rouge and he couldn't stand time without her, what if she left when they were done and this feeling never went away? Knuckles felt yet another feeling he wasn't used to, dread... It felt like he'd rather have the Master Emerald gone at this point.  
  
This was close to driving him insane, he had to talk to Rouge, maybe if he got some of this out in the open with her they would get solved faster, at this rate he was only going to dig himself deeper. Knuckles stood up and turned to where Rouge walked off, starting over himself, hoping she wasn't already asleep. As he approached the rocks and plants separating the two halves of the plateau he heard something odd, almost like... beeps from a phone? Knuckles stepped over quietly to a pair of large stones with a gap between them big enough to look through, stopping and ducking down slightly to keep from sight, in case there was someone else there. He peeked through the gap, surprised at what he saw. Rouge was standing there, definitely not taking her nap, her back to where Knuckles was spying. She was just moving up a cell phone to her ear, as if she just finished dialing a number, the beeps he heard before... What was she doing, though?  
  
"This is Rouge, reporting in." She said into the receiver. Knuckles kept low, out of sight in case she turned around, keeping as still as he could. From the caves he knew how good her hearing was, he'd be too easily discovered if he made any major movement.  
  
"Good, Rouge, after last night we feared we lost our agent." He said. There was a tone of lying she could hear even over the phone's small speaker, obvious he was only concerned about the emerald. "Make your report." He ordered. Rouge took a deep breath, steadying herself for this.  
  
"Your interruption last night ruined everything." She said. "The echidna found me out and destroyed the emerald. Something about better it be gone than let it fall into the wrong hands." Knuckles held down an urge to burst out and ask what was going on, though it wasn't hard to piece together. Rouge came just for the Master Emerald? All this they went through and shared and she only came for the emerald? What confused him more was what she was talking about, the emerald was still in his backpack, without a scratch. Why lie to her boss?  
  
"Then get him to restore it." The president ordered. "Your report indicated that the echidna can repair the Master Emerald regardless of how damaged." Rouge almost forgot about that part, she detailed everything in that report.  
  
"He won't do it against his will, I already tried." She lied again, better at it than her employer was. "The mission's a failure." Knuckles continued to listen, though his mind was too occupied to listen well. He wasn't angry, that was the odd part, he was upset, even hurt... It was a strange hurt, too, no physical pain but it was worse than any punch or kick or blast he had ever taken in his life.  
  
"...why do I get the impression that this is just what you want me to think?" He said. Rouge felt her breath stop suddenly, hoping she wasn't caught so quickly. "What is it, Rouge? You feel pity over taking the Master Emerald from him? You want that power for yourself?" There was some relief in the fact that her actual motive wasn't so easily spotted, but she was still on the spot, and quickly learning that duty and desire had no place coexisting.  
  
"You wanted my report, that was it." She said into the phone. "Take it or leave it, that's it." Rouge pulled the phone away from her ear, glancing down at it. Her sensitive ears could still hear the president going on, she didn't care anymore, though. Her decision was made. If both her and Knuckles were going to be slaves to objects, it might as well be the same one. Rouge made a quick pass over the side of the cliff with her arm, releasing the phone as she did. She watched it descend, bouncing against rocks, the plastic casing breaking open and scattering bits and wires around as it came to a stop at least fifty feet down, now in too many small parts to continue bouncing off rocks. Rouge looked down at it, still amazed she actually did it, but also feeling a great relief from it.  
  
Knuckles was now completely lost, the hurt was still there but now he wasn't sure what to even think about it. He stood up, still watching Rouge, and stepped around the rocks, heading toward her. Rouge heard the footsteps and felt a deeper dread now as she turned, watching Knuckles approach. What surprised her was that he didn't look angry, he looked emotionally hurt, it was a state she couldn't have even imagined Knuckles being in.  
  
"So, care to explain that?" He said, stopping about a yard away from her. Rouge was too panicked to speak immediately, even if she could explain what she was just doing.  
  
"...I take it you heard the whole thing..." She finally said, just to confirm her fears. Knuckles responded with a simple nod, still waiting for that explanation. "...Fine... I won't lie to you, not anymore. I was ordered to come here to take the Master Emerald, but I won't, I don't want to, I never wanted to. It was either follow orders or spend life in one of their friendly prisons." Knuckles heard the words, but only the first ones hit him. All this and the whole time Rouge came here for the Master Emerald. Was she just stringing him along this whole time just to keep his guard down?  
  
"Rouge... Do me a favor and leave the island. Now..." The echidna turned away from her, stepping back to the other side of the plateau. Rouge was stunned for a second before following after him.  
  
"Wait, that's it?" She asked as she walked after him. "Knuckles, I'm telling the truth, I don't want the emerald! Not for them or myself, not anymore!" Knuckles stopped in front of the transport sphere, turning back to look at her, the hurt still in his eyes but also anger.  
  
"And that's supposed to change the fact you've deceived me this whole trip?" He spat. "You came to me with a lie, kept it this entire time, and wouldn't have even said it if I hadn't overheard that phone call. As far as I'm concerned, you're no different from the first time we met..." The red echidna turned his back to her again, proceeding to change the path of the transport sphere. Rouge still stood a yard or two behind him, feeling like she could break down right there. She shook off that feeling as best she could, she just gave up everything she had to protect the only person she ever loved, she couldn't just back down now. Knuckles was back to paranoid guardian, though, it would take something desperate...  
  
Rouge quickly darted up behind Knuckles, repeating the act from the day before, delivering a kick to the bottom of his backpack that knocked Knuckles forward a bit and forced the Master Emerald to fly out of the backpack and into the air. Rouge was more prepared for this one and jumped up, taking the emerald in midair and landing in front of Knuckles, on top of the transport sphere. She turned to look at Knuckles, who was looking on in confusion, not sure what to think. He didn't have time to react before Rouge disappeared in a beam of light, taking her away. Knuckles quickly leaped up to the top of the transport sphere, not sure at all what to think now, running mostly on instinct. It took a minute for the sphere to recharge before transporting him, as well.  
  
**********  
  
Knuckles reappeared deep within the mountains of the Floating Island, in what looked like an underground temple surrounded by blue-tinted rock, the Hidden Palace. He quickly stepped off the sphere and looked ahead at Rouge, still holding the shrunken Master Emerald, but not attempting to run or escape. She was looking on at the Super Emeralds in the center of the room, massive versions of the Chaos Emeralds and each pulsing with the same life as the Master Emerald, each untouched from their platforms surrounding the largest one, still vacant. The white bat glanced over to Knuckles, trying to keep a calm face but obviously concerned about Knuckles.  
  
"It goes in the large platform up there, right?" She said, hoping for a simple answer. Knuckles only nodded, still upset and not in the mood to go to detail. Before Knuckles could come any closer Rouge turned to one of the Super Emeralds beside her, quickly hopping onto it. With another quick leap she bound up toward the emerald set higher up, putting up a leg and kicking off from the large gemstone, turning in the air and ending her acrobatics by landing on the large empty platform, letting out an audible grunt as the sharp landing agitated her wound.  
  
"...Then get up here and finish this job, I can't make this thing go back to full size." Rouge moved the Master Emerald into what looked like a nest of long green crystals, setting it in the center where it somehow stood on it's point without help. Knuckles watched this, just getting more confused about what Rouge was up to.  
  
With his hands free Knuckles had an easier time making it to the large platform, using the Super Emeralds like a staircase until he landed on the platform across from Rouge, the shrunken Emerald between them. The red echidna reached out to the emerald, drawing out it's energy until it pulsed brightly and expanded, returning to it's original size and fitting the emerald nest completely. With the Master Emerald in place both of them jumped down, landing lightly on the floor below, both turning to look at each other immediately.  
  
"...Why does everything you do lately just confuse me more..." Knuckles said, tired of keeping in so many questions that Rouge could answer so easily.  
  
"I was hoping to show you I'm not after the emerald." She replied. "You wouldn't have given it to me if I had asked to carry it here and replace it myself." That part was true at least, but it was far from reassuring, at least in his newly-shattered mindset.  
  
"That doesn't change the fact that you came here to take it." Knuckles said, turning his gaze away from her. "Even if you were ordered, didn't you even think of telling me about it?" Rouge remained silent, not sure what to say. Maybe Knuckles wasn't the only one who had trouble seeing passed their duty. "...Proof you did intend to take it. That you lied to me about all this, this whole time... I don't know how I could trust you at all anymore." Rouge looked on in some disbelief, was he really this hurt over this? The tone in his voice reached far beyond paranoid claims, like he was hating what he was even suggesting.  
  
"Knuckles, please believe me, I value your trust more than any stupid gem, if I thought I had a choice about it I wouldn't do anything to damage that trust!" Rouge was at the point of pleading, almost desperate for some change of luck here. "...I know now I should have told you, but at the time, in my mind, I didn't have a choice. Just give me a chance to keep that trust before you completely forsake me." Knuckles returned his glance to her eyes, seeing her sincerity in their desperate gaze. This was getting to be too much, with everything else weighing on his mind he would be lucky to ever think straight again. At this point he just wanted it over with.  
  
"...Come on." He said simply, turning back and walking over to the sphere. Knuckles put a hand on the purple orb, then jumped on top, letting it take him away. Rouge looked on at this, not sure what to think or expect now. Was she getting this second chance? She quickly stepped toward the sphere, following after Knuckles, hoping he wasn't so upset that she didn't already lose her chance.  
  
**********  
  
When Rouge emerged from the transporter she found herself high in the sky, much higher than the Floating Island reached. She jumped down to a squared off chunk of land, glancing ahead where Knuckles stood, glancing at her, the same hurt and confusion in his eyes. Rouge decided that if things were on his terms for now it might be best to let him decide the pace. She glanced around, stepping passed him, looking out into the distance all around them.  
  
"Sky Sanctuary." He explained, answering her unasked question. "This is where I was supposed to go if someone was after the Master Emerald. That transport sphere can change destinations if I want it to as I go through, it's a last measure to guard the emerald." Rouge's steps brought her to the far edge of the platform, letting her glance down to the Floating Island far below, a couple hundred feet at least. "You can float down from here, shorter than walking all the way back through." The white bat turned back, looking over at Knuckles, the hurt glare still in his eyes.  
  
"So that's it...?" She said. "No chance to prove myself, no way at all to keep your trust?" Knuckles closed his eyes, clenching his fists. He just wanted this over with, this whole trip had only confused him more and more and now he was at a point where he had no idea what to think about anything.  
  
"...Knuckles, of all people, I was hoping you would understand what it's like to be a slave to an object." She said. This was all she had left, if Knuckles didn't believe her after this she would be completely lost. "You know what it's like not to be able to question what you do with it. You have to guard the Master Emerald, so you do, no questions about it when you should have dozens, and you can't keep yourself from obeying. Even leaving it with the Super Emeralds, you're putting it in a place only you can get to, keeping it safe,,, obeying it." Knuckles's glare softened slightly, the truth to her words sinking in.  
  
"We're more alike than you realize." She continued. "That phone was only there so I could be given orders, to follow without question, and face consequences if I didn't. Same as you, I had to follow what it commanded even if it's a roundabout way of doing it. Knuckles... It was you that made me realize what that phone did to me, the curse it had on me like the Master Emerald has on you. Whatever consequences I'll face for it, I don't care, I'd prefer them to hurting you like this..." Rouge took a deep breath, calming herself after that pouring of words. Knuckles, on the other hand, felt like breaking down at this point. Every word was truth, they were the same things running through his mind all day, and the words she spoke made something in the pit of his heart ache. But the uncertainty remained in his mind, the trust that was losing grip.  
  
"Rouge, I just don't know anymore..." He said, his voice somewhat shaky. "Believe me, I want to trust you, but... knowing you came here and lied to me all this time, I don't know how..." Rouge lowered her head, not even sure herself...  
  
Thinking back over what she did to Knuckles, Rouge came back to what she did for him. Her sacrifice, defying her orders, and it was something she had to do in a moment of desperation, something she learned was the fastest teacher there was, it was the only time since coming here that she knew what she wanted. The white bat turned around and stepped to the edge, looking over the side. They were literally floating in the air and it was as least a hundred feet even back to the floating island, let alone down to the ocean.  
  
"Knuckles, something I had to figure out recently was that the most important choices in life are ones that are decided in a single moment." She said, just now turning to look back at Knuckles. "Some things can only be realized when you have to realize them." With that Rouge put one foot back, the heel of her boot now off the edge of the platform, a fact Knuckles was quick to notice.  
  
"Rouge, what are you doing?!" He shouted. "We're too high up, if you fall there's no surviving it!" Knuckles stood his ground, though, he didn't know what she was doing but she couldn't really be thinking of jumping. But that was what she planned, Rouge was making the gamble of her life on this. Her wings couldn't catch the air to glide or even slow her fall from behind, if she fell back only one thing could stop her from hitting ground, but she wasn't afraid at all. Rouge looked on at Knuckles, her eyes open without any sign of their usual seductive glance and her smile without it's cocky intentions, it was all pure.  
  
"I'm not scared, though, Knuckles." She said. "I trust you." With that Rouge took her other foot off the platform, kicking off slightly with her other foot as she fell back and off the platform. Knuckles felt his heart stop cold as it happened, the scene all too familiar from his dreams. There was more horror to this in that Rouge did this intentionally, trying to prove something that wasn't even clear to him! His instinct kicked in, rushing after Rouge as fast as his legs could take him, bounding off the edge head first, heading down to her falling form. She wasn't that much farther down that he was, Knuckles was just hoping he could gain enough speed to reach her. The echidna closed the gap quickly, Rouge's wings slowing her fall slightly, just enough to get Knuckles catch up. As soon as he was in reach Knuckles put arms out, closing them around Rouge's midsection, hanging on tight as he pulled up, his dreadlocks flaring as they caught the air and slowed their fall. Her own arms came up and went around his neck, holding on tighter as their fall was jerked as it suddenly slowed down.  
  
"What were you thinking?!" Knuckles said once he was sure he had her in his grip and slowed down. "That was a fatal fall, are you insane?!" He pulled away from her enough to look her in the face, only to realize she still wore the same smile and look in her eyes, he hadn't even noticed if she had that the whole time or not.  
  
"I wasn't scared, though." She explained. "I knew you'd catch me." Knuckles looked on into her eyes, she was serious. They didn't show any fear, no nervousness, she knew he would dive after her. All that talk about not trusting her and she held that kind of trust for him...  
  
"I don't care, that was still foolish!" He continued. "What if I tripped?! What if I couldn't catch up?! You have any idea how much you scared me, I thought I..." Knuckles suddenly caught himself before the words could pass his lips. Was that how he really felt? It was hard to believe, but as he did it seemed to clear all the confusion from his mind. "...I thought I was going to lose you." Knuckles's eyes softened as he said it, a great pressure lifting from his mind as he did.  
  
"Well, well, the brave guardian can be scared after all?" Rouge teased. She managed to draw a calm smile out of the echidna holding her, though his eyes still showed how much he was coming to terms with it all.  
  
"I didn't think I could be..." He replied. "Just... tell me what made you do that!" Rouge's smile became a smirk, somewhat glad at his response to being scared.  
  
"Knuckles, I know your life is supposed to be all about keeping to yourself." Rouge began. "But somewhere in this trip I figured out you only realize things when you're forced to turn away from that. When I got cut by the emerald shard... or before that when you saved me at Meteor Herd. The only time you open your shell is when you have to, but how would you see what you really wanted to if you never had to open it again?" Knuckles looked on at her, amazed she did something like that just so he would see that himself.  
  
"...Knuckles, I'm sorry..." She continued. "I never would have lied to you if I knew it hurt you so much, I just-" Knuckles shook his head, stopping her from continuing.  
  
"It doesn't matter anymore..." He explained. "You're right, I do understand what it's like to obey an object without question, and I couldn't see passed my own shell to learn for myself. But more than that... I don't care anymore. Regardless of why you came here, the moments we had were real, in those moments I... I mean, Rouge, I..." Knuckles closed his eyes briefly, trying to find these words to say this well of feelings in him, he just wasn't good at this kind of thing. When he opened his eyes to continue, one of Rouge's hands came to his mouth, keeping him from speaking again.  
  
"Knuckles, for once on this journey, act like a guardian and just... run with your instincts." Rouge pulled her hand from his mouth, lightly moving it across his cheek until her fingers took a light grip behind his head. Knuckles was somewhat stunned for a second, but that was quickly dissolved by a new desire in him, those instincts taking over. The two closed eyes as they closed the gap between their heads until their lips met in the middle in a soft, cautionary kiss. The kiss was brief, but the two were quick to resume, their own passion taking over in a deeper, more meaningful kiss. The same words and thoughts went through their minds, but didn't need to be said, both knew how much they loved the other, and each kiss only showed it more and more as each was deeper and more loving than the last, both lost in this new rush of emotion.  
  
Suddenly the two were forced apart as they finally touched land, both too caught up in their moment to know the ground was coming up under their feet. Both opened their eyes as they got their balance, looking on at each other, each sharing a look of love in their glance. They were back in Mushroom Hill, surrounded by familiar green-leaved trees and orange fungus.  
  
"...So what comes next?" Rouge finally said to break the silence. Knuckles took a second to think that over himself, though it didn't seem to help.  
  
"Honestly, I don't know..." He answered. "This is just so new, I don't even know what to think about it all." Rouge thought it out a bit longer before smiling, an idea forming.  
  
"Fair enough, then let's not worry about what comes next." She said before glancing around briefly. As soon as she had her bearings she started back down the path they had taken days before, back toward the Master Emerald's chamber.  
  
"Rouge, we're done with that, where are you going?" Knuckles asked in confusion. She stopped and turned around to look back at him, her familiar smirk returning.  
  
"Girlfriend's duty to drag the boyfriend around." She said. "Unless you want to be left alone again, which I should hope you'd be tired of by now." Knuckles had to hold back from blushing at the boyfriend remark, but it took a second to realize he really didn't mind it so much... Though it might take a while to get used to calling Rouge his girlfriend. She turned and began to walk again, this time with Knuckles following to catch up with her. She was right, Knuckles was tired of being alone so much, especially now that he finally realized the love he had for the white bat that showed him what life could offer when his shell was finally down.  
  
End Chapter 5  
  
Next: Chapter 6 - Epilogue 


End file.
